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State Rep. Kevin Haggerty Leaves Town Hall Early, Doesn’t Explain Why He’s Been a No Show in Harrisburg

DUNMORE — Earlier this week, a Newswatch 16 Investigation revealed that Democratic State Representative Kevin Haggerty (D-112th District) has not cast one...

DUNMORE -- Earlier this week, a Newswatch 16 Investigation revealed that Democratic State Representative Kevin Haggerty (D-112th District) has not cast one vote at the state capitol for the past two months.

Dave Bohman went looking for Representative Haggerty to ask him why but we never did get an answer.

So Thursday night, we found the Democrat from Dunmore at a town hall meeting.

Think Haggerty was eager to address our report that he's not showing up for work? He wasn't.

“There's such a tremendous moment of this happening and what it does for your lives is extraordinary,” said State Representative Kevin Haggerty.

Haggerty spoke to the crowd that gathered at the Dunmore Community Center.

“No senior will ever lose their home again because of high skyrocketing property taxes,” said Haggerty.

He was there to promote a bill that would eliminate school property taxes across the state. The bill is being pushed by a grassroots movement called Pennsylvania Liberty Alliance. It wants homeowners to stop paying school taxes and replace the funding by increasing income taxes and the state sales tax.

"We have equal value homes with huge disparity depending on what school district you live in their property tax burden,” said Ron Boltz with the Alliance. “We're going to say let's treat every taxpayer the same. Everybody pays the exact same 1.88 percent personal income tax, everybody pays the exact same sales tax.”

“In 2015 this bill lost by one vote in the Pennsylvania Senate, just one vote,” Haggerty informed the crowd.

Haggerty and the Alliance told these taxpayers to call their lawmakers and tell them to vote for the bill.

But a recent Newswatch 16 Investigates report found that Haggerty himself has missed every vote and committee meeting in Harrisburg for the past two months.

For that story, Newswatch 16 went searching for Haggerty at each of his offices to ask him why but couldn't find him.

And then just as this town hall meeting was wrapping up, Haggerty took a phone call, walked out and left, reportedly for family reasons.

“How many times did his phone ring?” asked Fran Radocsky. “It's a town hall meeting he`s sponsoring it or participating in it the phone should have been off. He should have stay for the end and thanked the people for coming.”

“He didn't explain why he's doing what he's doing but he did say it was a personal problem,” said Joe Caterina.

Kevin Haggerty is almost halfway through his second term in Harrisburg.

He's eligible to run for re-election in 2018.

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