Millions of Pennsylvanians will go into 2025 clutching a list of new resolutions … and just over a dozen of them will be bringing them to the state legislature next week.
New state lawmakers are set to be sworn in for the first time at the Capitol on January 7 — two of them representing districts in Allegheny County.
In the North Hills, Republican Jeremy Shaffer takes over the House District 28 seat held by Rob Mercuri, who chose not to seek reelection so he could run for Congress instead. In the Mon Valley and South Hills suburbs of District 38, Democrat John Inglis won the seat of his cousin Nick Pisciottano, who has himself ascended to the state Senate.
Their new jobs won’t really begin to take shape until after they are sworn in, when they are assigned to the committees that review and sometimes rewrite bills focused on various issues. But both have backgrounds and interests they hope will serve them, and their constituents, in Harrisburg.
Jeremy Shaffer, HD-28
Shaffer is a former Ross Township commissioner who worked for 20 years in the transportation industry as a computer engineer and entrepreneur. And he hopes to bring those areas of expertise with him to Harrisburg.
“We need to grow our state,” he said. “We need to help create jobs here and reduce some of the regulations that drive businesses to other areas of the country.”
Shaffer says he’d most like to serve on House committees focused on commerce, education, and infrastructure – issues he says he knows firsthand.
Shaffer founded a company that provides support for bridge and road inspections. And he doesn’t have to look far to see signs of a vast, aging infrastructure network that needs attention.
“A state that has an effective preventative maintenance program, they might spend $1 million preventing $100 million of repairs in a future year,” Shaffer said, adding that the city of Pittsburgh is “a case study in the mismanagement of infrastructure.”
Though his district doesn’t include the city itself, or its bridges, Shaffer hopes legislation drawing from his background in the industry could benefit the entire state.
Using inspiration from schools in his northern Allegheny County district, he’d also like to revamp school funding.
“North Allegheny, Pine-Richland, Deer Lakes and Hampton… my district is fortunate to have some of the best school districts in the state. We want to keep it that way and want to continue to improve them,” Shaffer said.
Currently, “the approach is that if the school is having a problem, we will simply send more money to that school, so effectively you're rewarding poor performance,” he said, adding the amount of money spent on education isn’t the problem.
“We need to reform the way that money has been spent, get the money into the right places,” Shaffer said.
John Inglis, HD-38
Inglis is a one-time West Mifflin councilmember and school guidance counselor, roles he says will inform his legislative work.
“Investing in counseling, therapy, behavior intervention specialists, and social workers… I feel like we've been oftentimes very reactionary in how we fund things in Pennsylvania [schools] and certainly it's better to be proactive,” he said.
He said his top priority will be to find a new funding model for education, especially in districts that don’t have a strong local tax base. A state court found in February 2023 that the state’s current education-funding model, which relies heavily on local property taxes, is unconstitutional.
“Studies have found… a lot of public education facilities across the state are outdated,” Inglis said. “Not all schools have the same resources and support.”
The biggest hurdle to a fair school funding model? Not increasing taxpayers’ share to a burdensome level, he said.
Like Shaffer, Inglis has expressed an interest in working on the House education committee. But he said supporting unions was another key priority.
He said his legislation will focus on “empowering unions” by protecting them and continuing “economic development” to Mon Valley communities
“I grew up in a union household,” Inglis said. “My dad was an educator in the Navy so this idea of service has been instilled in me.”
Beyond labor and education, he told WESA other priorities include fully funding local police, EMS and firefighters — “There's a statewide crisis on getting people to come into these fields” — and defending reproductive health care.
