The new 14th Senatorial district includes parts of Lehigh and Northampton counties, including Walnutport and Lehigh Township.

Candidates are Republican Dean N. Browning, a former Lehigh County Commissioner and Democrat Nick Miller, an Allentown native who served on Allentown School Board.

Here is a look at the candidates:

Dean N. Browning

Address: Allentown4

Election website/social media: www.browningforsenate.com

Background: I received my master’s degree in 1979 and moved to the Lehigh Valley to work for Air Products. Since then, I have held positions at several local companies including New World Aviation where I was the CFO for 18 years before retiring in 2018. I served on the board of the Allentown Rescue Mission for the 15 years.

I served one-term as a Lehigh County Commissioner where I reduced the County’s operating deficit 65%. I worked for accountability and transparency by passing legislation that required campaign finance reports and video recordings of Commissioners’ meetings to be posted onlin

What are your three top priorities if elected to office?

I have lived in the Lehigh Valley for over 40 years, volunteering in the community and working in the private sector. I have had to balance budgets, meet payroll, and make the hard, necessary decisions needed to get things done both in the private and public arena. I want to put that experience to work in Harrisburg where my focus will be to:

• Combat inflation and grow our economy

• Empower parents

• Tackle crime

Our senior population is being hit harder than most with the high inflation. What do you think can be done to alleviate the burden of property taxes? The use of property taxes to fund schools may have worked in the last century but it not in this one. School property taxes are unfair to homeowners, particularly those who are retired, and the use of property taxes create funding imbalances among schools that make it all but impossible for our schools to uniformly graduate students that are prepared to succeed in the global economy. It is time for school property taxes to end.

Pennsylvania is one of only a handful of states where school districts fund outside cyber/charter schools. Do you think the current method of funding cyber/charter schools is fair and what, if any, changes would you make to the funding system? We need to empower parents on education – and improve schools by giving parents the ability and means to make a choice that is best for their child; and require online transparency so they can see the curriculum used to instruct their kids.

The quality of education a child receives should not be determined by their zip code. For William Allen High, the Department of Education shows that only 65% of Hispanic students will graduate in 4 years.

How you would help improve access to mental health services: One of the places where we need mental health services the most is with those who are incarcerated. I would work to secure mental health services for county jails so that treatment can begin immediately for those that need it.

Warehouses are a hot topic in the region. How you would attract new businesses while balancing the need to preserve land and the environment: As a member of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners I chaired the Farmland Preservation Board. I believe strongly in the partnership between the state, counties and local government to acquire the development rights to preserve our farmland and open spaces.

Nick Miller

Address: Allentown PA 18104

Election website/social media: https://www.nickmillerforpa.com

https://www.facebook.com/nickmiller4pa/

https://twitter.com/nickmillerforpa

https://www.instagram.com/nickmillerforpa/

Your three top priorities if elected to office: My top three priorities are educational equality, the economy, and keeping communities safe.

I aim to fight for fair funding for schools throughout the Commonwealth. As a small business person myself, I understand the importance of strengthening our systems to provide resources to small business owners.

I plan to advocate for common sense gun reform to keep our communities safe. These reforms include background checks and instituting red flag laws.

Our senior population is being hit harder than most with the high inflation. What do you think can be done to alleviate the burden of property taxes? We need to properly fund our public education system at the state level to alleviate the burden placed on property tax payers in schools that are systemically underfunded. Additionally, Sen. Lisa Boscola has a proposal to increase property tax rebates that I would support when in office.

Pennsylvania is one of only a handful of states where school districts fund outside cyber/charter schools. Do you think the current method of funding cyber/charter schools is fair and what, if any, changes would you make to the funding system? I don’t think the current method of funding cyber/charter schools is fair. Charter schools don’t have the same oversight as our public school systems, and test scores and graduation rates from these institutions are not higher than those from our public schools. We need to alter the system of allocating funds to our schools.

How you would help improve access to mental health services: We need to dedicate funding towards mental health services, and work to decrease the stigma affiliated with seeking aid for one’s mental health.

Warehouses become a hot topic in the region. How would you attract new businesses while balancing the need to preserve land and the environment? We need to offer businesses incentives to make the Lehigh Valley their home, while

simultaneously making the transition to using more renewable energy in a way that is

sustainable and does not threaten the jobs of any residents of the Commonwealth.