Tarik Burns and Jocelyn Burns of New Kensington boarded a bus full of residents from across Southwestern Pennsylvania destined for Harrisburg Sunday morning.
The pair, members of grassroots group Voice of Westmoreland, will share their cost-of-living struggles with state lawmakers and join in a demonstration outside the state Capitol Building on Monday, alongside other residents and organizers from all six chapters of VOW’s parent organization, Pennsylvania United.
William Reeves Ferran, PA United governing power manager, said the group will meet with about 15 state legislators from both sides of the political spectrum.
Army veteran Tarik Burns, 51, hopes to tell state lawmakers how the rising cost of living is affecting him and his community.
While on short-term leave for rotator cuff surgery, Tarik is only receiving about 60% of his usual paycheck and combined with increased prices for everyday necessities, he’s trimmed many social outings that used to be routine out of his budget.
“The everyday American is getting pushed into that place where it feels like they’re being trampled all over and it needs to stop,” Tarik Burns said. “You got voted into those positions by people … and you got to represent them.”
PA United is pushing for a package of three state senate and house bills focused on things such as closing corporate tax loopholes and taxing unearned income, Reeves Ferran said.
“These three policy solutions are … a tangible way to ensure that our schools can stay open, that SNAP and Medicaid can be funded and our communities can get food from food managers,” Reeves Ferran said. “It’s a way to advocate for something tangible that can deliver real change in the midst of this affordability crisis.”
The Harrisburg trip is a cumulative point of the organization’s “affordability crisis” campaign, which it has been focused on since January.
It has spent the year ramping up local efforts, including in New Kensington and Arnold, and trying to get residents across the region to join its policy advocacy.
The Voice of Westmoreland chapter surveyed nearly 500 residents earlier this year and found that utility and health care costs were causing the most anxiety.
For Anita Drummond, 69, of East Liberty, health care costs are doing the most damage to her wallet.
In February, she said her usual prescriptions for diabetes and seizure medicine were going to cost her $1,128 because she lost her insurance.
“I want to be able to go (to Harrisburg) and let them know that people my age … we need Medicare, Medicaid. I can’t live without it,” Drummond said. “I’m going on this trip because I don’t want nobody else to feel the way that I have been feeling.”
Voice of Westmoreland chapter director Amanda Rose Piern said the organization’s local work has shown that federal funding cuts to social safety nets are straining resident finances.
“We want to bring attention to how much that’s affecting people in Westmoreland County (and) locally,” Piern said. “These bills would help to replace that federal funding and so … our real hope is to start the conversation.”
In Sandra Gill’s hometown of Aliquippa, residents are feeling a burden of decreased SNAP benefits and rising rent costs, she said.
“There’s so many people that are suffering financially,” Gill said. “We’ve been getting loud (about) it now.”
Reeves Ferran said many residents now have to choose between essential costs, like groceries or rent, which creates the “affordability crisis.”
He hopes bringing residents to the capital can open lawmakers’ eyes.
“Harrisburg can be a bit of a silo and you get insulated in terms of what you think is a reality and sometimes hearing those stories is a reality check,” Reeves Ferran said.
Jocelyn Burns said increased living expenses, such as utilities, home repairs and everyday essentials, have made her retirement in New Kensington costlier than she anticipated.
“I worked since I was 14 years old, I did everything right,” Jocelyn Burns said. “I’m not a materialistic girl and I just want to share with (state legislators) that now at this age I’m thinking I better start … paying attention budget wise, because I don’t want to be struggling to buy food.”
She’s hopeful, though, that the Harrisburg trip will be fruitful, especially her scheduled meeting on Monday with State Representative Jill Cooper, R-Murrysville.
“I really hope that we come away really encouraged,” she said.
Piern said focusing on state policy was the next step for the group after meeting with the Westmoreland County commissioners.
“We know that this isn’t just hitting Westmoreland County,” Piern said. “If we can’t do it at the county level, because the county commissioners say they don’t have the ability to actually correct (the affordability crisis) then it has to be at the state level.”