Truitt Calls Out Binder

The following is a press release from the Truitt Campaign.

Today, State Representative Dan Truitt condemned Democrat State House Candidate Bret Binder’s most recent negative attack ads that deliberately used misleading information about funding for the West Chester Area School District.

“We all expected Binder and House Democrat leaders in Harrisburg to say anything to win this election,” said Truitt.  “But to go as far as to lie about information that is so easily and readily available to the public just shows that Bret does not have the integrity needed for this job.

“The fact remains that I successfully fought the Corbett Administration to restore every dime of state funding for our school district that was cut under former Governor Ed Rendell, and the West Chester Area School District now receives more state funding for basic education than it did when I began serving the 156th district.”

According to the same Pennsylvania Department of Education information cited by Binder in his attack mailer, state funding for West Chester Area schools has increased. In fact, basic education funding provided by state tax dollars has increased 17% for WCASD since Truitt took office two years ago.

“The significant increase in state funding for West Chester was a hard fought victory,” said Truitt.  “Legislative leaders and the administration were desperately trying to fill the nearly $4 billion hole left by the loss of federal stimulus funding and our schools were high on the target list.”

“There is no doubt we need to do more, but to get a 17 percent increase and restore the funding cut by the Rendell Administration was a tremendous victory in light of the challenging economy.”

In 2009, President Barrack Obama successfully passed a more than $800 billion Federal Stimulus funding bill that included money for local schools.  The funding was to be considered as a one-time funding source by state leaders.

However, Democrat leaders in Harrisburg at that time misappropriated the funding -- instead using the funding to offset devastating cuts they made to state funding for local schools.  When Federal Stimulus funding ended in 2011, it left the state with a nearly $4 billion budget deficit and a massive shortfall in school funding.

After taking office in 2011, Rep. Truitt joined with local families to successfully fight for and win restored state funding for West Chester and other districts in Chester County.

In the attack mailer, Binder cites a press release from State Democrat Leader Frank Dermody’s legislative office, hardly an unbiased source, as evidence for his baseless and false attacks.

“Binder not only lied about the facts, but he compounded his lies by using his own Democratic Leader’s taxpayer funded press releases as so-called proof of his claims,” said Truitt.  “Claiming a politically motivated press release, authored by the same people who cut education funding in the first place, as factual information is a slap in the face of thinking people across the 156th District."

Dan Truitt is State Representative for the 156th State Legislative District in Chester County.