Onorato woos students voters

Job opportunities and affordable education were some of the incentives Dan Onorato used to try… Job opportunities and affordable education were some of the incentives Dan Onorato used to try to woo student voters in a speech on campus yesterday.

Onorato, the Democratic candidate for governor, spoke to a room of about 40 people in the Barco Law Building yesterday afternoon.

Onorato is running against Republican Tom Corbett, the state attorney general, for Gov. Ed Rendell’s position. With only five days until the election, Onorato, who has been the Allegheny County Executive since 2003, said that since most of the polls have him and Corbett at a dead heat, it will all come down to who shows up at the polls on Election Day.

He used the venue to highlight some of his major policy stances, qualifications for office and criticisms of his opponent.

One of Onorato’s main points discussed was higher education. Onorato said he encourages higher education and does not want the cost of an education to stop people from going to college.

Onorato said he will treat public, semi-public and private colleges equally and will give grants from the government that will match tuition at some of these universities. These grants will be flexible so that students can choose which colleges to go to and where to use the money. Onorato said this flexibility is good for competition among the many universities in Pennsylvania.

“My goal is to keep four-year colleges affordable so that students don’t come out with piles of debt,” Onorato said.

When asked after his speech about the problem of young graduates leaving Pittsburgh after college and moving outside of the state to find jobs, Onorato said that Pennsylvania gets a lot of federal research dollars that can be used to lead to employment.

Through research projects, ideas are created which lead to spin-off companies. These companies often move outside of the state, but Onorato said that Pennsylvania needs to create room for these companies to start and grow in the state.

Onorato also said he wants to work with small businesses as well as women and minority entrepreneurs to foster companies.

Marcellus Shale drilling stands high among potential job creators in the state over the next few years. He said he supports the drilling, especially since it will create 80,000 new jobs over the next 18 months.

Kelli Vandergrift, the president of the Pitt College Democrats, said one of her main reasons for supporting Onorato is because she supports his plan to create jobs and stop cutting taxes for companies overseas.

He wants a competitive severance tax, which will be used in part to fund inspectors and make sure all regulations are being enforced. Corbett has stated publicly in the past that he would not support a severance tax.

“Corbett is simply wrong on this issue,” Onorato said in regards to Corbett’s stance on the severance tax.

Onorato said that severance tax is not a party issue, since all other states that have Marcellus Shale drilling also have a tax.

Onorato’s one demand for the private corporations that are leasing the land is that they must hire Pennsylvania residents for the jobs dealing with Marcellus Shale. He said that Pennsylvania community colleges and vocational-tech schools will train students for these jobs.

“These are our jobs, the gas is under our lands, and we should get these jobs,” Onorato said.

John Berris, public relations chair for the Pitt College Republicans, said he supports Corbett because of his pledge not to raise taxes, when Onorato has not made such a pledge.

Onorato also brought up the issue of health care, and his support for the current health-care system that has just been put in place by President Barack Obama and Congress.

He said he has watched deductibles rise, coverage worsen and premiums increase by 20 percent every year.

“This is about doing what’s right and not responding to corporations,” Onorato said.

Berris said that Corbett took measures to prevent the passage of the new health-care law — along with other U.S. Attorney Generals — on the grounds of it being unconstitutional.

Onorato also highlighted his plan to reform the Pennsylvania government by downsizing the legislature.

“No one is going to tell me there’s no room for improvement,” he said.

Onorato spent the first 20 minutes of his speech describing his background with Allegheny County and laying out the differences between himself and Corbett. This was then followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.

Onorato stressed multiple times that he was the elected executive of the second-largest county in Pennsylvania — a county that has “created jobs and weathered the storm much better than most others.”

Allegheny County is consistently below state and federal unemployment levels, Onorato said. He credited this to the assets that the area has, including its many universities.

Onorato ended by telling the room of students that “it’s your generation that they are predicting won’t show up to vote. There is a lot at stake, and no matter who you vote for make sure you get out to vote.”