State House Bill Calls For Reduction In State Legislature

A local state lawmaker's bill to reduce the size of the state's legislature got a public hearing in front of the state house government committee. Representative Mark Mustio R-Moon, introduced the bill in 2007 but has seen it largely ignored. The bill calls for a 20% reduction in size of both the State House and the State Senate resulting in an increase of 15,000-17,000 constituents per district.

Mustio says this bill is important and should pass because Pennsylvania has the largest full time legislature in the country. The bill would result in a constitutional amendment, so in order to pass, the bill would need to be approved in two consecutive sessions of both the House and Senate and then need to pass a voter referendum. Mustio said he will support this bill for as long as it takes to pass.