Pennsylvania State Representative District 120
Description of office: The General Assembly is the legislative branch of government in Pennsylvania. It is composed of two houses: the Senate is the upper house, and the House of Representatives is the lower house. A majority vote in both houses is necessary to pass a law. The PA House of Representatives consists of 203 members representing one district each, with an equal number of constituents. Representatives must be at least 21 years old, have been a citizen and a resident of the state four years and a resident of their respective districts one year before their election, and shall reside in their respective districts during their terms of service. The House develops budget packages, makes taxation decisions, allocates spending, and passes laws (including redistricting in collaboration with the Senate). The House also has the exclusive authority to impeach public officials. Representatives also serve on various policy committees that may propose legislation. Term: 2 years Salary: $106,422 Vote for ONE.
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Fern Leard
(Dem)
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Brenda Pugh
(Rep)
What do you see as the most pressing issues facing Pennsylvanians, and how would you address them?
What changes would you support making to Pennsylvania’s voting laws to expand access, ensure security, and support local election officials and processes?
What legislation would you support to comply with the Commonwealth Court's ruling that Pennsylvania’s school funding system is unconstitutional and must be reformed?
What changes, if any, would you support making to Pennsylvania’s abortion laws?
County
Luzerne
Occupation
Advocate
Education
Nurse Aide Certification at Marywood University
Qualifications
Fern Leard’s political advocacy earned her a 10+ year education on how state and federal government operates. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Luzerne County Democratic Party as well as the 5th District Democrats of Luzerne County. Learn more about her at www.votefern4pa.com
Many Pennsylvanians are struggling to make ends meet while everything but our wages go up. Our minimum wage needs to be a family sustaining wage. We are losing a lot of tax revenue by allowing companies operating in PA, that have incorporated their business out-of-state, avoid paying state taxes while leaving small and local businesses to shoulder that bill, we must close that loophole. We need to prioritize holding companies accountable for price gouging us by amending the Price Gouging Act of 2006 to impose stronger penalties that can’t be brushed off as “the cost of doing business” and make sure that the Bureau of Consumer Protections has what it needs to make sure Pennsylvanians aren’t being taken advantage of by greedy corporations.
The burden we place on our election workers by not allowing them to open the envelopes of mailed in votes until election day is unnecessary. Tallying the votes would be more efficient and drastically increase the likelihood of projecting the winner of an election, on election night, if they weren’t subject to start until the polls open on election day. Separately, the many changes to our voting process over the last 5 years has caused a lot of voter confusion, which has unfortunately resulted in legally registered voters having their votes thrown out. We have a responsibility to provide better access to voter education when we make changes to prevent that from happening.
Pennsylvania currently ranks #36 in the nation for public education and we have a lot of work to do to change that. A quality public education requires adequate funding and we have failed to offer that to many of our school districts. I fully support revising the cyber charter school funding formula to reflect the actual cost of educating our students. The formula we currently use is outdated and results in our school districts overpaying tuition that could be used elsewhere in our educational system. We need a funding formula that will equitably provide a quality public education to set up all our students for success.
I am a strong advocate for reproductive freedoms and there is much I would support changing in Pennsylvania’s abortion laws. Including, but not limited to, changing informed consent to mean discussing the procedure and its risks as you would any other medical procedure, offering optional counseling without a 24hr waiting period, striking out the spousal notice provision, and expanding access by permitting advanced practice providers to perform the procedure. Abortion is healthcare.
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