(Editor\u2019s note: The following is the second part in a series offering Daily Herald readers a closer look at Republican State Representative Jerry Stern.)<\/p>\n
Representative Jerry Stern must divide his time between Harrisburg and two offices in his district.
\nThe juggling act is not an easy one on some occasions, according to the 80th district legislator. Stern\u2019s district includes seven municipalities and nearly a dozen and a half townships. The representative must also spend about 50 to 60 voting days in the state capital. Stern must also attend committee meetings both in Harrisburg and throughout the state.
\n\u201cDuring the budget process, I spent two weeks in Harrisburg just dealing with those issues,\u201d said Stern who is a member of the appropriations committee.
\n\u201cI\u2019m on the agricultural committee and in the summer months we have to attend Ag Progress Days in State College. We hold committee meetings right there,\u201d said Stern in describing the diversity of locations and settings where committee meetings can be held other that Harrisburg.
\nStern said he has also attended committee meetings in Pittsburgh, Erie and other cities and towns throughout the state.
\n\u201cIs it worth going to a hearing in Scanton about Children and Youth Services, for example, when you have to entertain the needs of your district back home,\u201d pondered Stern when weighing the various responsibilities a state representative has to deal with on a regular basis.
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t fool your constituents. They know if you are in the office or not, they know if you are doing your job,\u201d Stern told The Tyrone Daily Herald at his Tipton office on Friday.
\n\u201cIf you are not in your office and you are not in Harrisburg, well then where are you?\u201d Stern asked rhetorically in explaining how residents in the district can keep tabs on their representative.
\nOn the day of the interview, Stern related an example of the type of services he can offer to area residents in his district. He had just met with some people in the office who were trying to get a law changed.
\n\u201cThey really had no direction to go with their concern. I explained the process to them and what they need to do to go about it,\u201d Stern explained in citing just how individualized the service he provides can be in some situations. In other cases, office staff can offer help on more routine matters.
\nStern had spent last week in Harrisburg and spent part of his sit-down with The Daily Herald discussing the current process playing out in Harrisburg regarding Governor Ed Rendell\u2019s spending proposal.
\n\u201cI had several initiatives in the house plan and then voted against it,\u201d said Stern in detailing what\u2019s already happened in Harrisburg. \u201cThere is a spending plan in the state senate. They have pared it down from the house version. They\u2019ll negotiate with the Governor and then after voting on the latest changes the senate would send the latest version back to the house for concurrence.\u201d
\nStern said he voted no on the previous house version because he did not like the taxing provisions associated with it.
\nThe representative also gave extensive views of other issues including the gambling initiative in Pennsylvania during his interview with The Daily Herald.
\nThose comments from Representative Stern will be detailed in the next segment of this continuing series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Editor\u2019s note: The following is the second part in a series offering Daily Herald readers a closer look at Republican State Representative Jerry Stern.) Representative Jerry Stern must divide his time between Harrisburg and two offices in his district. The juggling act is not an easy one on some occasions, according to the 80th district […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}