What does the next governor of Pa. need to know about your community?

Humor us for a moment by imagining the following situation:  You’re sitting at your kitchen table sipping coffee, devouring a huge pile of golden brown waffles, and catching up on the latest news — when the next governor of Pennsylvania walks through your door and sits across from you.

Somehow you sense you only have 30 seconds before either Tom Corbett or Tom Wolf disappears into thin air, 30 measly seconds to tell him what he really, most of all needs to do for your city or community. What would you tell him?

 All right, we admit that actually having time to sit down to eat breakfast in the morning sounds a bit far-fetched and luxurious. But what if …?

So we asked Pennsylvanians across the Commonwealth from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, State College to Harrisburg, to imagine this situation.  We got a medley of responses.  We heard about potholes, taxes, fracking, casinos, crime, and struggling schools again and again — to mention just a few.  Not one person came up short when asked to name an issue about their community that was close to their conscience.   

You can watch the video above or read a few responses below:

We need a fairer system of paying for our schools. If that means that we have to raise our taxes, that is the price you pay for a good school system. Without a good school system, your state is not going to prosper. If that requires taxing the gas company, it won’t drive them away … I’m all for raising costs on the gas companies.

— Dee Dee Bollinger, North Wales, Pa.

The first thing would be to pay attention to the crimes. There is a lot of senseless death going on. We need some kind of funding for these young people to have something to do. The second thing is we need to do something about our streets. The potholes, it’s terrible. Pay attention to where we live. I have been here for four years. I love Pittsburgh. I’ll never leave, but we need to address the street issues and the crime issues.

— John Jones, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Philly is a big city full of small communities. I think the biggest thing is to recognize that everybody here has a story and not to be judgmental . A lot of the government assisted programs need to stay in place. Closing things like libraries and community centers is not good because there is no where for people who don’t have anything to go … it only creates more issues in the city.

— Ashley Marie, Philadelphia, Pa.

Pennsylvania’s communities may be diverse, but they share a stake in outcome of this upcoming election. The consequences will reverberate throughout the state.  With Election Day just five months away, we want to hear from you. 

Tell us what the next governor of Pennsylvania really needs to know about your city or community in the comments below or tweet your responses to us @Pacrossroads #Heygov.