Do not dilute our representation
I urge you to correct the most egregious gerrymandering as you draft the next decade’s PA Senate and PA House district boundaries. I’ll be using Central PA (mostly Dauphin County) to illustrate my points. In general, every county, municipality, and school district benefits from more focused representation. The more each is divided between PA Senators or PA Legislators, the more difficult it is for the county, municipality, or school district to advocate for its needs. The dilution of representation of a single entity by multiple people is a problem that cascades down to the lowest levels of township, precinct, and Magisterial District Judge governance. For example, Dauphin County Commissioners advocating for a particular issue must lobby 2 PA Senators and 6 House Representatives. York County Commissioners must lobby 4 PA Senators and 7 House Representatives. Lebanon County is represented by one Senator and only 3 Legislators. Perry County, on the other hand, is uniformly represented by just one Legislator and one Senator. 1. One of the Dauphin County communities, Londonderry Twp, is the only one represented currently by Rep. David Hickernell; this is a population of just 5200 people. 2. One of the 3 Legislators in Lebanon County (Sue Helm) is shared with Dauphin County, covering a combined population of just 8500 in Lebanon County. Swatara Township (Dauphin Cty) must lobby 3 House Legislators if they are trying to effect something that covers the Twp as a whole. Susquenita School District lives partially in Dauphin County and partially in Perry County. Williams Valley School District lives partially in Dauphin County and partially in Lebanon County. Why? Two of the remaining school districts wholly in Dauphin County are themselves non-contiguous, and the split representation of the county dilutes their ability to advocate for themselves and their constituencies. We know that, today, in Dauphin County, Central Dauphin School District, is represented by 4 Legislators and both Senators. Same for Lower Dauphin School District (but a different set of 4 Legislators). And both Upper Dauphin and Williams Valley are split school districts. (A number of Dauphin County school districts are also split by Congressional representatives!) These are just some of the obvious areas where Dauphin County has been cut into pieces and representation diluted. The new maps should, at a minimum: 1. Reduce, by at least one, the number of House Legislators for Dauphin County, and Lebanon County. 2. Figure out a way for Swatara Twp to be represented by a single Legislator. 3. Minimize or eliminate split school district representation. 4. So called ‘ridge communities’ in Northern Dauphin County could be clustered under one Senator and combined with Perry County while another Senator can represent the remaining communities south of the ‘ridges’ which are more urban; more densely populated; share traffic, housing, and flooding concerns; and are more diverse communities with all the challenges that entails. 5. So called ‘river communities’, particularly south of Harrisburg City, should be kept combined within a single Legislative district. By no means are all the gerrymandering issues addressed by these actions, but they would go some distance in reversing the dilution of representation. Footnotes: 1. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/county_list.cfm?CNTYLIST=LEBANON 2. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/county_list.cfm?CNTYLIST=DAUPHIN 3. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=londonderry+twp 4. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=north+annville+twp 5. https://www.google.com/search?q=east+hanover+pa+twp&client=firefox-b-1-d&sxsrf=AOaemvK0bQZHWwEg4bZf80MOmswEK4Vq_g%3A1635446461020&ei=ve56YbVPxYLK0w_f0qCABQ&ved=0ahUKEwj1oe7q4O3zAhVFgXIEHV8pCFAQ4dUDCA0&uact=5&oq=east+hanover+pa+twp&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBggAEAgQHjIGCAAQCBAeMgYIABAIEB4yBggAEAgQHjoHCCMQsAMQJzoHCAAQRxCwAzoHCCMQsAIQJzoECC4QDToICAAQCBAHEB46BggAEA0QHkoECEEYAFCxLViUMGDORGgCcAJ4AIABe4gB1QKSAQMwLjOYAQCgAQHIAQnAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Dauphin_School_District