Newly elected State Rep. Gary Day (R-Lehigh) (Pa. House photo)
Gary Day of Lehigh County will return to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for an eighth term next year after a two-year hiatus.
Day held the 187th Legislative District seat from 2009 to 2022, when he lost it to a Republican colleague in a redistricting-driven primary battle. When state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie announced his run for Congress this year, it opened the door for Day to retake his old seat.
Since leaving office, Day has served as director of district operations and policy for Senator Jarrett Coleman (R-Lehigh). Day said he was encouraged by his former constituents and members of the Legislature to return as a lawmaker.
“I thought, yeah, I’m glad I didn’t go do something else…I’m glad I worked with the senator, I have the opportunity to continue to serve the people of the 187th District,” Day told Capital . Star.
The district has changed somewhat since Day was last in office. While it still includes a broad swath of rural northern Lehigh County, it now includes more of Allentown’s fast-growing western suburbs in the Commonwealth’s third-largest metropolitan area.
Day spoke with the Capital-Star in November about the district, the issues it faces and what he wants to focus on if he takes office in 2025.
Capital-Star: What do you have in your district that no one else has?
Day: The Economic Engine of Western Lehigh County and the Agricultural History of the Northern Tier. So those two things are both in the neighborhood. Western Lehigh County is home to many businesses that drive a lot of economic activity in Pennsylvania.
That whole area there is economically successful. It is growing and more and more people are moving there. Companies want to establish themselves there.
CS: What is the most pressing issue in your district?
Day: When you are in a growth phase, people will often start spending the money as quickly as it comes in. And I think you have to be very smart about where we spend the money, and make sure that as our area experiences economic growth, that the dollars and assets stay here to help with infrastructure like transportation, so that the burdens of the growth are collected.
I served on the Appropriations Committee for six and a half years, and you make a choice: Are you going to be involved and understand how we spend money? And I did.
COVID caused inflation. Higher dollar amounts are coming in, the budget is increasing, and I don’t know if we’ve had time to really think about what we’re spending the money on. That leads to more inflation and wasted taxpayer assets.
You need about 20 budget hawks, and you need about 20 people making suggestions about new ways to deliver services and things like that. What we’ve gone to since COVID is we don’t have as many of those people, and what’s happening is we’re spending more.
CS: Is there any legislation you plan to introduce when you are sworn in?
When a major electricity user signs an agreement to buy power from an energy producer, it can help pay to restart power generation. [in the case of the deal between Microsoft and Constellation Energy,] from nuclear energy. I think that’s good, but our supply and demand become dependent on that agreement.
Is there a way we can say that if you do a deal like this, you should also bring other people into the power purchase agreement so that you end up with more than one buyer of that expansion of power generation?
I want to introduce other people to the benefits of generating more energy so that we diversify the energy users on the Commonwealth’s production network. The most important thing it will do is ensure there is no rollercoaster on the pricing front. If a user decides to cut usage by 50%, boom, they don’t get paid for all that capacity.
