The race for the Pennsylvania 150th House District seat pits three-term Democratic incumbent Joe Webster against Republican challenger Simone Collins
The 150th District includes the townships of Lower Providence, Upper Providence and voting district 3 of West Norriton and the boroughs of Collegeville and Trappe.
Mail-in and drop-off voting has already begun. In-person voting will take place on Election Day, Nov. 5.
MediaNews Group provided the same set of questions to both candidates. What follows are their responses, edited for length.
What inspired you to run for office?
Simone Collins: “My husband and I see civic engagement as a key stage in life and it’s a norm with which my husband was raised: After you establish your family and career, it is your duty to serve your community. I’ve reached a stage in my life at which I think it’s time for me to contribute.
Furthermore, I believe we’re at a crucial turning point as a state and I want to help us move in the right direction as we head into a period of major cultural, economic, and political disruption.
Joe Webster: In 2018 I was recruited to run for office. I have been enormously fortunate as a member of a large family, in my military service, when I was teaching, and when I got to lead different business teams, in a small start-up firm in King of Prussia, and for a Fortune 100 company. But the “mission” at every level of my experience was about service, enhancing the lives of those around me, and making. clients, communities, fellow airmen better off than when we started. That’s why I said yes back then, in 2018, and it’s why I still serve today.”
What prior experience do you have in elected office?
Joe Webster: “I was elected as State Representative in 2018 and have served almost six years. That experience includes 4 years in the minority in Harrisburg and the past 2 years as a member of a “humble” majority of one.”
Simone Collins: “With regard to experience that would serve me as a policymaker: I have a Master’s from the University of Cambridge in technology policy and an undergraduate degree in international business from the George Washington University. I’ve spent over a decade working in operations, venture capital, and private equity, plus I serve as an international policy advocate, with a focus on demographic collapse and pronatalism, regularly engaging with policymakers, governments, and the media on these issues.”
Name a single problem facing the district you are running to represent and how you would address that issue if elected.
Simone Collins: “Though I expected to hear more about local policies and issues, the most frequently occurring complaint I’ve received from people in District 150 is that they’re unable to reach local elected officials (even if their issues are impossible to resolve, they deserve at least an initial acknowledgement and response). To that end, I want to provide very transparent means by which both I and fellow colleagues can be contacted and a system that holds us to account with regard to responses.”
Joe Webster: “This is not an answer about how I would address an issue. It’s what I’m doing. Hurricane Ida destroyed 64 homes in Pennsylvania’s House District 150. This happened along the Perkiomen Creek and along the Schuylkill River. At the time, I served in the minority in Harrisburg. Our state government responded to the emergency. But it has no answer to the problem of a serious increase in rainfall and the cumulative impact of development. But, in August this year, I funded, and the Montgomery County Planning Commission signed, a contract to model the entire 380+ square miles of the Perkiomen Watershed, across 4 counties, to understand the flow of water, the areas most susceptible to flooding, the recurring costs of “doing nothing,” and to make a prioritized list for the infrastructure projects required to slow down the water, and protect our homes and businesses. These will be infrastructure projects. They’ll create jobs and economic development. They’ll reduce the risks of flooding and help modernize Pennsylvania. And in the end, they create cleaner water, less erosion of our creeks, native habitat, wildlife corridors… In other words, good government, local focus, and environmental benefits for all of us.”
What role do you see the legislature playing in addressing the increasing number of homeless people in your district?
Joe Webster: “Pennsylvania, as a Commonwealth, has very decentralized government structures. We don’t give the state legislature authority over local zoning boards, for instance. We have very broad state laws on housing density and mixed types of homes. But, for the most part, housing is based on locally controlled regulations. And it’s very hard, overall, for Pennsylvania to solve many regional issues, including homelessness, as a result. The serious answer to homelessness is complex and long-term. It will take enormous political will to create a coordinated approach to homelessness, including low-cost housing, taking care of vulnerable people (children, veterans, seniors), and providing money to address emergency situations. But here’s some ideas:
Legislatively, we can provide funding and incentives to county governments, to provide mental health care, or treatment for substance abuse disorders and in this way allow a person to hold on to their job, and stay in their home. We could find ways to keep seniors in their homes as they age, as their fixed incomes lose value over time. One example is to freeze property taxes for people who have lived in their homes over 20 years. Or 25. Personally, I like that idea better if we can control for wealth. Wealthy people don’t need to have their taxes frozen. Others do.
Legislatively, we can make the eviction process fairer, so people are not pushed into the street quite so quickly when they have a problem making the rent. We could provide a safety net so maybe a month’s rent or 60 days’ rent supports landlords who, by the way, deserve to get paid. But creating a buffer.
The long-term solutions to homelessness are hard. They include early education; and it’s about increasing wages for workers. It’s about mental health care and substance abuse programs. And it’s about making sure our seniors are secure in their homes as they age. Those things represent a lifelong commitment to every member of our communities. They require funding and commitment and a better vision for the future of Pennsylvania.”
Simone Collins: “The legislature plays a crucial role in keeping incentives well aligned in a manner that combats homelessness. We must eliminate legislation, systems, or policies that produce and perpetuate homelessness and adopt legislation, systems, and policies that help communities prevent, reduce, and eliminate it. Homelessness and drug abuse was functionally incentivized where I grew up around San Francisco; we must make sure the same doesn’t happen here.”
What specific actions should the state legislature take to make life more affordable for the people living in your district?
Simone Collins: “Our state legislature needs to eliminate bureaucratic and legislative bloat that has caused costs to balloon. Doing so will improve our state’s services and economy while making it possible to reduce state and local tax burdens.”
Joe Webster: This question leads to the entire role of government in Pennsylvania. By creating “quality of life,” government has the opportunity to make life affordable, to give everyone the opportunity to succeed in education, in careers, and in their family goals. Government provides the guard rails, not the guarantees. But that includes public safety, good schools, roads and bridges, stormwater controls, etc. and etc. The state legislature can make taxes fairer than they are and that would create the opportunity for local municipalities to lower their taxes. The state legislature can fully fund our schools and give our local school boards the opportunity to reduce property taxes. The state government can do more for infrastructure, to reduce flooding, to reduce traffic congestion. We can seriously control healthcare expenses and the cost of prescriptions because healthcare is an area where government oversight makes sense. We can do more to help families who need home nursing or home care. We can plan, because planning ahead is always cheaper than responding to a crisis. We can envision a future where families thrive and college graduates stay in Pennsylvania simply because there’s no better place to be and in all these ways, put more money in the pockets of Pennsylvanians.
How will you gather feedback from the community regarding their needs and concerns?
Joe Webster: “Since my election in November 2018, I have hosted over 20 community events. town halls, veterans’ breakfasts or senior fairs annually. I hear directly from the community I represent, and I go to Harrisburg, as your representative prepared to make some big pretty big decisions about schools, health care, pay equity, gender equity, LGBTQ rights, gun safety; about environmental Issues, childcare, early learning. It’s a long list.
Simone Collins: “I will gather feedback by openly accepting and categorizing suggestions, concerns, and tips received via phone, text, email, and social media (I am already doing so). I am contemplating sharing a publicly visible Google Sheet of these suggestions on which people can comment with tips and additional thoughts; I think it would be very helpful for others to see what I’m seeing.”
Do you support the court decision regarding fair funding to schools? If yes would you continue to support increased funding to meet the goal over the next seven years? If no, why not?
Simone Collins: “I am more interested in advancing school choice — especially enabling parents to opt to redirect their tax funds toward private schools, charter schools, or homeschooling if that’s best for their kids — before we talk about increasing funding for schools. Increased spending on schools has not recently correlated with improved student outcomes. Instead, a huge portion of increased spending on schools seems to be going to bureaucracy. ”
Joe Webster: “Yes, I support the court decision and I voted this year to make the first step toward fair funding of all of our schools. And yes, I will continue to support increased funding to give every student in Pennsylvania the opportunity to succeed in school and after.”
Do you support the idea of taking re-districting out of the hands of the legislature and instead creating a citizen’s commission to do the work every 10 years? Why?
Joe Webster: “Yes, I support the drive to create an independent redistricting commission for our legislative maps. The reason why is simple, has become something of a cliché, but is nevertheless absolutely accurate: voters should pick their elected officials. Elected officials and candidates should not be picking their voters.”
Simone Collins: “I would need to learn more about the benefits and hazards of redistricting being in the hands of a citizen’s commission vs. the legislature to make an informed decision.”
