Oct 10, 2017 3 min read

Most people are inundated by bills, but few are buried the way Jennifer Reis is.

As manager of government affairs for Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, Reis is more involved with researching bills before the state Legislature than balancing household bills. She has an especially keen interest in legislation that would affect businesses across the commonwealth.

“No issue is as big as the state budget, the stalemate between (Gov. Tom Wolf) and the Legislature. But we track hundreds of bills in Harrisburg, and many of them affect businesses in the state,” she said Monday afternoon, at an informational meeting organized by Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce. Reis addressed an audience of about 25 business leaders at Monongahela Valley Hospital in Carroll Township.

Reis is concerned about the business climate in the commonwealth, saying Pennsylvania is ranked the 45th best state to start a business. She also decried the state’s 9.9 percent corporate tax rate, “the highest in the country and one of the highest in the world.”

“We want Pennsylvania to be a more business-friendly state,” Reis said. “We think we have a lot of good things, but the tax and legal climate make it difficult.”

A proposed severance tax on natural gas production in the state was one of her primary focuses. Although Pennsylvania is the only natural gas-producing state without that tax, she is against it. The oil and gas industry is already paying impact fees to municipal and state governments, and Reis said the severance tax on top of that would more likely chase away production companies instead of attract them – at a time when oil and gas is rebounding from a two-year slide.

Mandated minimum wage increases also are a concern, she said. “While there is good intent behind that,” Reis said, an across-the-board pay increase could result in companies cutting jobs and “could make the cost of foods and services more expensive.”

“Instead,” Reis said, “we push for workforce development. We need to close the skills gap in Pennsylvania. We should be focusing on the need for skilled trade workers.”

She lamented the ongoing budget situation, in which Wolf allowed a budget to take effect without his signature, even though lawmakers provided no framework to pay for the spending. As a result, the state’s credit rating has taken a hit.

State Rep. Bud Cook, R-West Pike Run, attended the session and spoke out during a question-and-answer session.

“We have a recurring spending problem,” he said. “(The Legislature is) more involved in messaging than managing. You need to demand more of your elected officials. You need to demand that they do their jobs.

“You want to put a severance tax on an industry (oil and gas) that is already paying impact fees and you want to attract Amazon to this area?

“I’m a freshman (legislator), and I kept my mouth shut for eight months. No more. Tell all of them, ‘Enough is enough.'”

Debra Keefer, director of the Mon Valley chamber, closed the meeting with an admonition.

“We have to get to work and let Harrisburg know how we feel.”