TRR photo by Diane Glynn Rep. Jerry Birmelin (Click for larger image)

Birmelin’s goals haven’t changed

By DIANE GLYNN

HONESDALE — After 18 years in office, Rep. Jerry Birmelin still looks forward to new achievements he can effect for Wayne and Pike County, if elected to a fourth term this fall.

While his territory has changed after the overhaul of political districts since the 2000 Census, he maintains that “redistricting hasn’t changed my job; it simply changes who I’m working for.”

After representing all of Pike County since 1983, he now has lost Porter, Dingman, Delaware, Lehman and half of Dingman Townships to Rep. Kelly Lewis, and lost northern Wayne County to Rep. Sandy Major. He has picked up Barrett and Price Township in Monroe County, and South Canaan in Wayne County.

Ever the representative of his people, he has an agreement with Major to continue to provide assistance when needed to his former northern Wayne constituents.

“Anyone who walks in the door, we help,” he said.

For a man who still lives in the same neighborhood as he did when he graduated from Wayne Highlands’ Lake Ariel School, one need not ask if he remembers his roots.

Birmelin spends two to three days of every week in Harrisburg, and last year, he proudly became the chairman of the Children and Youth Committee. “It took me 16 years to get there,” he quips. The committee members routinely tour schools, day care centers and homes for juvenile offenders to determine what improvements might be indicated, and then drawing up plans for implementation.

And when the Canaan Christian Academy was in need of an acting principal two years ago for the entire academic year, Birmelin’s busy schedule was juggled so that he could undertake the administrative role when the small private neighborhood school was in need.

But Birmelin got his juggling degree many years before when he attended night school at the University of Scranton, pursuing a B.A. in secondary education to become a history teacher, while he worked days “at a variety of uninteresting jobs” to support his wife and the first of their three daughters.

“I wanted that degree more than almost anything,” he said. After teaching about the roles of representatives, he decided he had something to offer his friends and neighbors as an elected representative himself.

And he still thinks so.

Birmelin’s latest offering is his solution to school property taxes.

He summarized his solution, beginning with the problem: “I’m an advocate of abolishing school property taxes, which keep going up. It’s based on the property, not the ability to pay. So, we should replace school taxes with personal income taxes based on the state level.

“We have a school district wage tax, and schools can raise the millage rate at their discretion. Well, I think all residents should support the school tax with personal income taxes, and I have statistics that support this idea,” he said.

Birmelin currently has two bills, one co-sponsored by Darryl Metcalf, pending before the House and Senate to institute this concept.

Another goal he has set for a fourth term is what he calls the Community Representative Board System, in which local residents work with low-level criminal offenders to assist in the process of making community restitution.

“This has been successful in Vermont, Montana, Maine and Minnesota, and for the second time has passed in the House and not in the Senate,” he said.

Another issue Birmelin wants to have a hand in is the creation of legislation to protect religious day care centers from administrative action by the Department of Welfare.

“I just want to prevent excessive interference when it comes to private programs,” he said.