By Imari Scarbrough
Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin/Adams) talked about solar farms, chem trails, property taxes, school choice, DOGE and more during a virtual town hall on Feb. 24.
Speaking from his Harrisburg office, Mastriano streamed on TikTok and Facebook Live as well as hosting a phone call. Mastriano and a small team answered questions from online viewers and callers.
PA DOGE
Mastriano answered a question from The Gettysburg Connection about his push to form a “PA DOGE.”
“We have introduced a memo to have a DOGE for Pennsylvania, and that would include driving down regulations,” Mastriano said. “We have 153,000 regulations in this state here driving how you live your lives, run your businesses, run your families. So that would go after attacking that. That would look also at ways to reduce the bloated state government, getting rid of properties that aren’t being used across the state.”
At the federal level, DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) has drawn criticism for slashing jobs among the federal workforce, as well as other spending. The federal DOGE is led by Elon Musk, who claims the measures are necessary to reduce government spending.
President Donald Trump renamed the former United States Digital Service as the United States DOGE Service (USDS), an advisory body, via executive order on Jan. 20. According to the order, DOGE will only last 18 months and will end on July 4, 2026.
Musk’s authority in his role, and the legality of many actions taken by DOGE, has been challenged by multiple lawsuits.
The Gettysburg Connection to Mastriano: “You mention potential goals of a DOGE-esque office in PA. Would it be advisory only or given authority? Do you have any concerns about the questions brought up in the chat about federal workers’ positions being cut?”
Mastriano immediately passed the question on to his chief of staff sitting beside him.
“So the way we designed the DOGE legislation here is that it would, first of all, it would report directly to the state legislature,” the chief of staff “And as you know, the legislature is the one that controls the purse strings, or the one that’s supposed to control the purse strings. Secondly, it would be made up of a committee which would suggest what things would be cut and what not would be cut.”
A PA DOGE committee would make recommendations but have no authority.
“Those suggestions, the committee would be made up of members of both parties, from both the House and the Senate, an officer of the State Treasure’s office, an officer from the Auditor General’s office, and that committee would then pass along its recommendations to the legislature,” the chief of staff said. “The legislature would be the ones that would make the decision whether or not to cut a particular program or something of that nature.”
The chief of staff highlighted that while he and Mastriano call it DOGE, it would operate differently than Musk’s group, despite it also being termed an advisory committee.
“This would not be a situation similar to the federal government,” the chief of staff said. “This would be a unique situation to the state of Pennsylvania.”
Constituent questions
Mastriano answered other questions from participants. An individual in Greencastle brought up concerns about solar farms taking up land.
Mastriano said constituents worried about solar farms should contact township supervisors and county commissioners to voice their concerns.
The senator said legislation has been re-introduced that, if passed, would keep solar panels from being put on “top quality” farmland.
“Because once you put those solar panels down, with what they do to the earth when they drop the supports into the ground, I believe that farmland is lost forever,” Mastriano said. “You could argue maybe a decade or two, but it’s gone forever. Those things are eyesores in the community.”
Instead, Mastriano said solar panels should be placed in less valuable areas than farmland, such as the old Chambersburg Mall site.
Another individual pointed out that much farmland is purchased for residential development, even more than is used for solar farms, in many areas.
“That’s where I find myself in a bit of a conundrum as a Republican here with individual freedoms and what have you,” Mastriano said, lamenting the loss of prime farmland. Ultimately, it “should be a local issue,” he said.
Mastriano also addressed property taxes, which he wants to see abolished on the state level.
“If I can go deeper here – so in the meantime, what we’re dealing here with with property taxes, is that no matter if you own your house and you’ve paid it off, you’re still seemingly with property taxes paying rent to the government, and for me, that’s reprehensible,” Mastriano said. “Either you own it or you don’t. With property taxes, you’re paying rent to your local government and that needs to end.”
He has introduced legislation to cut property taxes for homeowners age 65 or older.
In the meantime, the senator pointed those concerned about property taxes to their local government, saying they should bring their complaints there.
“I’m heartened to hear that at the federal level, out of my hands, Donald Trump is talking about using the tariffs to eliminate income taxes,” Mastriano said. “It still doesn’t help with paying rent on your house, even though you own it, to the local government.”
John, a resident of Greencastle, was one of a couple of veterans who called to seek help securing benefits, frustrated with delays and roadblocks.
“Obviously, this pisses me off here because I’ve dedicated most of my adult life to serving this country, 30 years in active duty, only retiring when I was mandatory retirement,” Mastriano said. He directed staff to take the veteran’s information and said his office will reach out. Then, he provided a brief roadmap veterans can follow to pursue their benefits, starting at their local veteran support office and going through their congressperson should that fail.
Mastriano also touched on gun control when addressing complaints from a constituent, Tony, in Adams County.
“I got an email from the Pennsylvania Firearms Association and they talk about a whole list of gun control bills the Democrats are trying to push through,” the caller said, listing statewide gun registration, mandatory gun liability insurance, mandatory waiting periods and other concerns. “Their hope is they bury us with enough of them we’ll pass some.”
Mastriano indicated he and other Republicans in the PA Senate want to block those efforts.
“The Pennsylvania State Senate… we are the last vestige of the state government keeping us from becoming New York or California,” Mastriano said. “That’s a fact, not hyperbole.”
Mastriano also talked about school choice and criticized Gov. Josh Shapiro, saying Shapiro has not worked to support school choice. Mastriano lost to Shapiro in the general election in November 2022.
Mastriano ran two separate polls during the town hall, giving respondents the option to indicate ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ or ‘don’t know or care.’
“We have a bill that I didn’t think was controversial. We were told by supporters of the shutdown in 2020-21 with the COVID and the COVID-19, ‘Follow the science,’” Mastriano said. “I watched those same people flip when it came to women’s sports, these people that supposedly support women’s rights wanting and allowing biologically, scientifically-proven men, boys, playing on girls’ teams and then dominating their sports.”
The first poll question: “Do you believe Senate Bill 213, the bill I just spoke about, mandating the Pennsylvania state government use of sex instead of gender will enhance the safety of women in locker rooms and sporting events?”
According to Mastriano, 62% of his listeners agreed while 29% were “denying the science” by voting ‘no.’ Another 9% were unsure.
The second poll question asked whether listeners supported a PA DOGE.
“It’s a bit closer than I thought it would be,” Mastriano said as he announced the results. “I see on Facebook most of you guys are voting ‘for’ in support of it.”
In total, Mastriano said 56% of respondents indicated they supported a PA DOGE while 43% said they were against it.
“I figured it would be a wider gap than that, especially with the response that we saw on social media and X and Facebook,” Mastriano said.
The third poll question: “Do you support borrowing up to $50 million to authorize a bonus for veterans in the Global War on Terror?”
A second staff member explained the legislation, which Mastriano supports, that would borrow for the bonus.
“It would authorize a bonus for our veterans of the Global War on Terror and if this passes, the question would go on the ballot for the voters to authorize the borrowing for a bond to fund the bonus for our veterans,” the staff member said. “This is what’s been done on numerous occasions with past war.”
Mastriano and his team ended the town hall without announcing the results of the third poll.
This event was Mastriano’s first town hall of 2025, but he hopes to host them monthly, according to the senator. Mastriano said he will attempt to host events at different times of the day in order to make himself available to those with different work schedules.
Constituents with questions or concerns can contact Mastriano’s Gettysburg office at 717-334-4169.
Mastriano’s Chambersburg office can be reached at 717-264-6100 and his Harrisburg office can be dialed at 717-787-4651.
Imari Scarbrough is a freelance journalist. She was a staff newspaper reporter for five years before becoming a freelancer in 2017. She has written on crime, environmental issues, severe weather events, local and regional government and more.
You can visit her website at ImariJournal.com.
I am aware that Mastriano’s disparaging remark, “The Pennsylvania State Senate… we are the last vestige of the state government keeping us from becoming New York or California,” Mastriano said. “That’s a fact, not hyperbole.” is meant to stoke fear in those who view progress as some scary liberal monolith. When in fact, we Pennsylvanians should BE so lucky to live in such places where the governments actually work in the interest of their constituents health and safety. Not to mention CA has the HIGHEST state economy in the country and NY is third! Which begs the question, what exactly… Read more »
Property owners ought to take the time to read the PA TAXATION MANUAL found on the PA Department of Community & Economic Development website. You will find the Department offers an easy-to-comprehend ‘explanation‘ of the ‘complicated‘ tax systems presently existing in counties, cities, boroughs, townships, and school districts in Pennsylvania. It reads, “The difference between income taxes and general property taxes is important. In the former, the base of the tax is the annual yield of income of property, business, or employment; in the latter, in this country at lease, the tax is the value of the source of that… Read more »
It has been said the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray…….we seem to be heading very sharply astray of what is good for the people and more of rats in sinking ships? Lots of supposition – guessing with no real, truthful support as to what is really good for us. Mastriano’s record speaks for itself!
I’m no fan of Mastriano – or any Christian Nationalist, since to me, they represent the Pharisees of the New Testament times rather than Jesus’ teachings, but I firmly believe one should listen and consider all thoughts for the best teamwork going forward for our state. Thus, here are mine on these issues: PA DOGE Rename it. If it’s merely a look at places to cut costs and be more efficient vs a wild, “going to cost us more in the long run due to being a chainsaw and sledgehammer in naive hands,” then it’s a good idea. Find things.… Read more »
Mastriano is a failure to Pennsylvanias. He’s more concerned with attacking the rights of our LGBTQ neighbors and family than he is defending the Constitution and our veterans. Some patriot, as he stumps to have the same illegal DOGE activity eviscerating support for seniors and veterans. He is shameful and needs to be voted out.