HARRISBURG In its 125th year, the Pennsylvania Municipal League is embarking on its statewide Member Appreciation Tour of the Districts.

On Monday, municipal leaders in the northwest district gathered in St.

Marys to discuss League business and important legislative priorities affecting local governments in Pennsylvania.

Mary Ann Horne, deputy mayor of Edinboro, was elected to The League Board of Directors, with Bradford Mayor Tom Riel elected as an alternate board representative. The new Northwest District Chair is Meadville Mayor Jaime Kinder, and Vice Chair is Chuck Nelson of Erie City Council.

Riel has served in several capacities with the League throughout his tenure as mayor, including multiple trips to Harrisburg to advocate for Bradford as well as to attend meetings.

Issues of concern that the League and its members feel should be legislative priorities include finding ways for local governments to improve their funding, create and maintain affordable housing, and local police use of modern speed detection devices. Pennsylvania’s local tax structure was designed in 1965. This model no longer meets today’s expenses.

Municipalities need more tax options for financing their operations. The League supports expanding taxing options to all municipalities by authorizing an increase in the Local Services Tax to $156 per year, eliminating the rate cap on the Earned Income Tax, and authorizing the Payroll Tax.

Did you know Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation whose local police departments cannot use radar or other modern detection devices to control speeding on local roads?

The vast majority of vehicle crashes happen on our local and secondary roads and speeding is the number one contributing factor. Local use of radar could help to curtail these preventable crashes. It has helped in neighboring states. Maryland, Ohio, and Virginia permit local radar use, and all have lower traffic fatality rates than Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania has a housing crisis. More than 12,000 Pennsylvanians were reported as homeless in 2023 due to the rising costs of renting or owning a home, which has roughly doubled in the last 10 years.

Many households spend more than half of their income on housing. Home ownership has decreased over the last few years, and new housing is not meeting demand. The National Low Income Housing Coalition states Pennsylvania has a shortage of more than 265,000 rental homes that are both affordable and available to extremely low-income families.

The PA Municipal League views housing as a statewide issue.

The League is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization established in 1900 as an advocate for Pennsylvania’s 3rd class cities. Today, The League represents Pennsylvania cities, boroughs, townships, and home rule communities that all share their municipal policy interests.

In 1899, Bradford Mayor J.C Greenewald and Erie Mayor John Depinet created the idea of bringing mayors of Pennsylvania’s Third Class Cities together to discuss common issues and solutions.

Ten Mayors met in October of 1899 and formed the League of Cities of the Third Class.

York Mayor Frank Geise invited the group to hold its first meeting in the City of York.

In May of 1900, the first convention, where a constitution and bylaws were created, included delegates from Allentown, Altoona, Bradford, Chester, Easton, Erie, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lock Haven, McKeesport, Meadville, Reading, Wilkes-Barre and York.

From the beginning, a legislative committee was formed to work with the General Assembly on legislation impacting local government such as: a uniform method of inspecting milk, meat and ice; creating a uniform system of sanitation; establishing a civil service for police; writing tax laws and tax collection; addressing stream pollution and sewage disposal and dealing with garbage and ash collection and disposal.

Tom Riel