Turnout low for primary election due to rain, lack of important races

 

By Darwyyn Deyo and Eric Boehm | PA Independent

 

While local officials and school boards were in the spotlight during Tuesday’s primary elections across Pennsylvania, voters gave mixed reviews of what proposed state spending cuts would mean to local politics.

 

In Harrisburg, Democrats have warned that budgets put forward by Gov. Tom Corbett and House Republicans would force higher taxes at the local level because of declining state spending. Corbett outlined a budget plan in March to cut more than $500 million from basic education — mostly the result of the end of federal stimulus funds — and House Republicans promised two weeks ago to restore $200 million of those cuts to ensure every district was funded at the same level as in 2008-09.

 

On Tuesday, voters in central Pennsylvania varied widely on their opinions of Corbett’s proposed budget cuts, with some praising the governor for reining in spending while others went so far as to call the cuts “stupid.”

 

Connie Bahn, a homeowner in Camp Hill, said the main thing in local politics was to make sure property taxes were not going to increase for a second consecutive year.

 

“I’m voting with the idea that you have to make do with what you have,” Bahn said. She said she hated to see important programs cut, “but you also can’t take 50 percent of my paycheck to keep them going.”

 

Jeff Benjamin, a Carlisle Republican, said he does not support Corbett’s budget cuts.

 

“I’m not opposed to taxes, and I think we need to pay for things that we want,” Benjamin said. “There’s always fat to cut, but there’s always needs that need to be addressed.”

 

Stacey Hawkins, who voted at the Hershey Public Library in Dauphin County, said the state budget cuts did not influence her vote Tuesday. Rather, she said, it was about the “personalities” in the race.

 

“My kids are in a virtual charter school, so I vote purely to protect (that), when I think of education considerations,” said Hawkins.

 

Charles Marshall, of Lancaster County, emphasized that the problems in state government began at the township level.

 

“Education cuts, that’s a serious problem,” said Marshall. “There needs to be a serious review of how state legislators are compensated. I do think it starts out at the township level; it’s where they model government.”

 

Pennsylvania has closed primaries, which means voters are only allowed to vote for candidates from the party with which they are registered.

 

Even so, the proposed budget cuts do have a trickle-down effect that makes local politics more important right now, said Thomas Baldino, a professor of political science at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre.

 

“Certainly, in the school board races, the effects of the Corbett budget (have) had a profound impact on (school) districts and on those who might be running for school board,” Baldino said.

 

Most of those who are running are telling voters they will hold the line on tax increases despite the expected decrease in state funding next year, Baldino said. 

 

Terry Madonna, a pollster and political science professor at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, said the details of the budget were released too late to have much of an impact on the primary season, which was under way when the governor made his budget address March 8.

 

“The primary season largely came and went before anyone was able to say what the budget cuts really mean,” Madonna said.

 

Some voters said the message of lower taxes and decreased spending seems to have carried over from the election this past fall. Most were not surprised by the cuts being proposed by the Corbett administration and the Republicans in the General Assembly, even if they disagreed with them.

 

Ken Smeltzer, of Cumberland County, said he expected the cuts at the state level to result in a push for higher taxes at the local level.

 

“If you’re cutting money from one place, you have to make it up from somewhere else,” Smeltzer said. “Unless you cut spending, and that never seems to happen.”

 

As of Tuesday afternoon, turnout was low in the Harrisburg suburbs, with most polling places recording a 10 percent to 20 percent turnout. A rainy morning had dampened the turnout rate, many poll workers said.

 

Madonna predicted turnout would surpass 20 percent in places where a hot button issue — such as an expected property tax increase — galvanized voters.

 

Yvonne Hursh, a poll worker in Dauphin County, said people were “disillusioned” after the previous election.

 

“Our last school district election was more competitive. We had a sense of, a need of change,” said Hursh. “It was more contested last time around. This time people aren’t really talking. The last time we had change, without really changing. People are disillusioned.”

 

Despite some of the anger being shown toward Corbett in Harrisburg, Madonna said voters were not generally upset at the new administration, yet.

 

“Depending on what the Republicans do, that will play itself out in the legislative elections next year,” Madonna said.