Harrisburg’s tax abatement program, a Papenfuse initiative, is working for one of his rivals in this year’s primary
Updated May 14, 2021;
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City Council President Wanda Williams opposed it.
And now, retired publisher Dave Schankweiler is benefitting from it.
The “it” in question?
tax break on significant improvements to residential properties for 10 years.
PennLive looked into how the abatement program affected the active Democratic mayoral candidates Papenfuse, Williams, Shankweiler and former city councilman Otto Banks after a Schankweiler critic wrote a Facebook post about Schankweiler’s participation and questioning whether he is paying any city or school taxes.
Primary election 2021: Dauphin County races to watch include CD schools, Harrisburg council
Updated May 13, 2021;
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This may be an off-year election, but in many parts of Dauphin County it’s off to a running start.
The ballot is packed with an array of candidates for county, municipal, school district and district judge offices for Tuesday’s primary election. The action doesn’t just center on Harrisburg, either, although the ballots for the mayoral, city council and school board races in the city are crammed to bursting.
While Rogette Harris, the chairwoman of the county Democratic Committee, and her GOP counterpart David Feidt are usually at odds in the political sense, they are in agreement on one thing.
Harrisburg’s mayoral candidates take readers’ questions: Privatization of public services
Posted May 13, 2021
Editor’s note: In advance of a planned forum for Harrisburg’s mayoral candidates, PennLive asked readers what questions they would like to ask the candidates. The forum was canceled after technical issues interrupted the taping, but four of the candidates agreed to answer a few of our reader’s questions. Here’s the first of the questions, and the candidates’ responses.
We start with a question that raises a lot of strong opinions in Harrisburg, where - to help the city climb out of a crushing debt load nearly a decade ago - the city’s incinerator was sold and the public parking facilities were turned over on a long-term lease to a private operator. Our reader wrote:
What would Harrisburg’s mayoral candidates do about policing in the city?
Posted May 13, 2021
Harrisburg Police Chief Thomas Carter stands between the police and the protestors in front of the Capitol steps during the Black Lives Rally protest in Harrisburg on May 30, 2020.
Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com
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One thing about this year’s Harrisburg mayor’s race:
Even though the Capitol City was host to a lot of criminal justice reform protests in the months after George Floyd’s May 25, 2020 murder while in the custody of the Minneapolis police, most of the Democratic candidates for mayor are not inclined - when it comes to law and order - to step too far out onto some of the more progressive criminal justice paths.
Harrisburg’s mayoral candidates meet up in last forum before May 18 primary
Updated May 13, 2021;
Posted May 12, 2021
The four top-tier candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination for Harrisburg mayor brought their pre-primary debate season to a close Wednesday night.
Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com
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Here’s a look at the highlights of the four participants’ pitches.
Otto Banks.
The former city council member and deputy assistant secretary in George W. Bush’s Department of Housing & Urban Development lobbed an interesting new proposal on the table, saying that if elected he would proposed selling the current City Government Center building on 2nd Street and moving the city’s offices to the site of the National Civil War Museum in Reservoir Park.