Gubernatorial Candidate Visits Williamsburg

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dave White stopped by the Williamsburg Community Center on Saturday, April 16, to talk with local leaders about his plans for the state.

White joins a crowded field seeking the nomination with nine candidates expected to be on May's primary ballot.

White of Delaware County said the state doesn't need another lawyer or career politician in the governor's mansion, rather a proven businessman.

White said he started his working life as a construction worker before starting a small HVAC company that has grown to employ 85 people. White said he supports the trades and wants to make trade and vocational schools seen in the same light as four-year colleges.

"College is great for some people and if you want to go that route that is wonderful, but it's not good for everybody," he said. "We need to treat a pipe wrench and a college degree equally."

White said he didn't go to college and wants to show the people of Pennsylvania that a college degree isn't needed to achieve success.

White said that while financial aid is equally available for trade schools and colleges, he said the tools needed at both institutions are not. He said the state's 529 plan, which is a program run by states to help save for a college education, doesn't provide the funding for supplies needed in the trades.

"The 529 plan allows you to save for college but what the 529 plan doesn't allow, and what we should change, is you can buy books with it. But if you are going for a trade in HVAC or something else, you should be able to buy your first tool box with it.

The books and the tools should be treated equally."

Williamsburg Mayor Ted Hyle, who is a tool and die maker by trade, said young people should be encouraged to go into the trades and agrees it should be seen on equal par as college.

Hyle said an issue he sees with the trades, particularly in our area, is keeping the industry here to support a workforce in the skilled trades.

Hyle said at one point in his career, he worked for a company that had seven plants in Pennsylvania and that he closed six of them down.

"We moved everything to a building in Mount Union and they closed that building and moved everything offshore or down to Mexico," Hyle said.

White said keeping industry in Pennsylvania is paramount and said that is a big reason a businessman is needed in the governor's mansion. He said the state's regulatory system needs reformed to make it easier for companies to set up shop in the state.

"We are using regulations from 1906," White said. "It takes two years to get permitting to get something done and to get something built and that is something wrong in Pennsylvania."

White said he started out in local government and, as Hyle confirmed, at the local level officials have 90 days to review a land development application per state law.

"If it's good enough for local government, it should be good enough for state government," White said. "They need to stop making laws that are good for us but not good for them."

White also said state government must start working more efficiently and that if elected, he is going to ask for the resignations of department heads and give them an opportunity to interview for their positions.

"We are going to go through every department and get rid of it if it's not needed, shrink it if it's too big and, if we need it, we are going to make it run efficiently," he said.

The primary election is on Tuesday, May 17.