I am a strong advocate of elected officials salaries commensurate with their constituents. If you’re a member of the Pennsylvania House and you represent, say Northern Cambria County, your pay should be the average income of the people living there. Not the high or low end, the exact median, that way you are presented with the same economic situations as your own people.

Only then would “perks” be granted at the same level that a business pays for expenses. So, if you had a flight to Harrisburg to discuss business, the gov’t pays for it. If you have a weekend flight to the Poconos to hang out with lobbyists, you pay for it.

Here’s an interview where he talks about his environmental ideas and also his choice for transport.

For a more local bent on the issue, check out the third letter to the editor here, as well as the story that inspired it. The resulting firestorm of pro- and anti-SUV letters that were published in subsequent days remain a point of pride in my letter-writing escapades.