Quality of Life and Local Control Caucus
of Township Supervisors
Shouldn't Your Community Be Part of the Caucus?
To Join, See the Model Resolution
The Quality of Life and Local Control Caucus of Township Supervisors was established
in 2001 as an independent Caucus within the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors. Since its inception, the Caucus has worked successfully to protect communities from a loss of local control over issues directly affecting the quality of life for Pennsylvania’s rural township residents.
While not associated with the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS), the Caucus aims to be a voice within that organization advocating for the preservation of local control and quality of life. Since 2001 the Townships’ Caucus has grown to include Township members from Counties across the State. Many more Townships are currently considering membership. Yours deserves to be among them.
The Caucus was formed to ensure that the State Association lives up to its own Bylaws, which charge it to “resist any effort at further centralization of governmental powers by depriving the township of any rights, duties or privileges that it now possesses.”
Across rural Pennsylvania, Township governments are faced with the proliferation of industrial hog and chicken operations owned and controlled by agribusiness corporations. Communities are confronted with the land application of sewage sludge, by the encroachment of mining corporations, real estate development corporations, and giant chain stores. The threat to our Townships’ health, welfare and safety grows daily, with the willing participation of PSATS and state lawmakers as one attempt after another to legislate away our right to pass local ordinances comes up for a vote in Harrisburg.
Protecting Township powers to control and regulate factory farms, the land application of sewage sludge, water withdrawals and various mining activities has been central to the work of the Caucus so far. Without the vigilance and unified voice of the Caucus in conjunction with other organizations across the Commonwealth, the power of municipalities to adopt ordinances prohibiting noxious activities within their jurisdiction would already have been stripped away.
What has the Caucus done for you and your municipality lately? Starting in May of 2001, the Caucus was instrumental in defeating Senate Bill 826. That bill would have unilaterally stripped local governments of their democratic rights, but it died in the Senate Agricultural Committee after drawing the broad opposition of Township Supervisors. That was round one.
Senate Bill 1413 was a re-write of SB 826, introduced as an expansion of Pennsylvania’s “Right to Farm” law on the advice of The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau “to avoid any bad publicity” of the kind that doomed SB 826. In very stark language, SB 1413 would have stripped away from municipal governments all control of factory farms and the land application of sewage sludge. The Bill passed the Senate and was headed for passage in the House when the legislative sleight of hand became public knowledge and the furor over the Bill forced the Republican leadership to pull it from consideration. The Caucus was a key player in that battle.
Then, House Bill 1222, another attempt at nullifying local governance was bulldozed through the legislature, passed the Senate, only to be vetoed at the last minute by Governor Rendell. The only thing the Governor found offensive about the legislation was the public outcry. The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau referred to HB 1222 as legislation to defeat “Illegal Local Ordinances” in its literature, and complained that it was “vetoed by Governor Rendell after a campaign by Farm Bureau that spanned nearly four years.”
Without the Caucus and like-minded defenders of local control, HB 1222 would have succeeded in accomplishing what the other bills had not. And yet, the Caucus is needed now more than ever.
Governor Rendell’s ACRE initiative, which was passed into law in 2005, might have been far worse, with its proposed local control-revoking Agricultural Review Board. But with the Caucus actively marshalling opposition among Townships across the Commonwealth the legislation was altered significantly, much to the annoyance of corporate agribusiness lobbyists. Still, the new law gives the State Attorney General discretion to challenge local laws that corporate lobbyists find offensive. So far, the AG has held his fire.
Needless to say, we haven’t heard the last of it. There’s an on-going campaign by powerful corporate forces that want to remove local obstacles to their irresponsible profit-taking practices. It’s a safe bet they’ll try again, and that’s why it’s so important for Townships to work together.
If you're a Township official, or a citizen who would like your local government to be a part of this vital alliance of local governments, then you should ----
Consider joining the Caucus today! Membership is free and entitles the Township to receive the Caucus’ quarterly publication, the Community Solicitor, which will keep you informed about model ordinances drafted to safeguard your Township’s rights. To join, simply adopt the Model Resolution and mail a copy to the Caucus at: 675 Mower Road, Suite #2, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 17201-8154.