Pennsylvania’s rural population is expected to shrink by 5.8% by 2050. The state legislature wants to reverse the drain through a new commission.
Officials say the Pennsylvania Rural Population Revitalization Commission will guide lawmakers in creating legislation that promotes growth and helps families plant roots in rural communities.
The commission held its first official meeting at the 109th Farm Show on Thursday. It’s part of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, which is a research agency for rural issues within the state’s general assembly.
Senator Gene Yaw (R-Williamsport) oversees the center on its board of directors. At the inaugural meeting, he said all five of his counties — Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan, Tioga and Union — are projected to lose population by 2050. He fears the ramifications to local healthcare, schools, law enforcement, to name a few, will be dire.
Those fears led to the commission’s creation, which Gov. Josh Shapiro signed into law under Act 21 on June 10 last year after the center published its population predictions for 2050 in Oct. 2023.
Pennsylvania’s total population will increase through 2050, but the center predicts the state’s rural communities will shrink, grow older and strain limited social and health services. Yaw’s five counties will decrease by around 5%, excluding Union, which is expected to grow by 15%.
Yaw argued the commission will do what the center can’t — make policy recommendations to lawmakers. He said the center’s board of directors did not want to put a research agency in a political situation.
“We have deliberately stayed out of the idea of making specific recommendations,” said Yaw. “You make a recommendation, half the people are going to say they're in favor, the other half are going to say they're against it.”
Commission’s 10 policy focus areas
The commission will focus on 10 policy areas, according to its website:
- Increasing participation in the federal decennial census
- Attracting and retaining residents in rural Pennsylvania
- Education and career opportunities
- Access to health care
- Affordable housing
- Access to social services
- Current issues facing rural Pennsylvania
- Grant awards and tax credit opportunities for rural Pennsylvania residents and businesses
- Statutory and regulatory costs and impacts on rural municipal governments, businesses, and communities
- Other issues facing rural Pennsylvania as identified by the commission
Besides policy concerns, the commission plans to maintain a database on rural Pennsylvania’s demographic trends and to share information on public grants.
State Rep. Dan Moul (R-Gettysburg) hopes the commission will get the state legislature to focus on rural issues.
“You ever hear that old saying, ‘I'm from the government and I'm here to help?’ Well, government's a problem. You can't expect people in rural Pennsylvania to be able to develop, to bring people in, when they've gotta deal with the same rules and regulations that you would have in a big monstrosity building outside of an urban area,” said Moul. “It doesn't work. It's not affordable. The numbers don't crunch.”
Rural areas don’t have the same resources as big cities, so they have different needs, he added. If government wants to be helpful, Moul said it needs to cut down on red tape.
For example, what if a small community needed a clinic — without local healthcare, “a town will become a ghost town.” People will have to move elsewhere for jobs and services, Moul argued.
But Moul argued building that clinic is not easy. Rural communities do not have the time, or the finances, to jump through hoops to get construction and highway occupancies. All that time and effort makes building a single small clinic cost as much as building a shopping center in an urban area.
“I'm hoping that this commission can figure out a way for those of us in the legislature to come up with language to give us a direction, to hopefully help these small communities to develop, to make sure their children stay at home, to help the family farm survive out in the Country, so that the two can can blend together, because obviously we need our farmers, and they're disappearing daily,” Moul said.
Kyle Kopko, the center’s executive director and commission’s first chairman, said his team has been laying the groundwork for the committee since June.
He said the commission held its 10th listening session and was building relationships with local lawmakers.
“It's an opportunity for us to provide information about the important demographic trends that we've been tracking at the Center for Rural Pennsylvania for a number of years. But more importantly too, it's also an opportunity for us to hear from stakeholders on the ground on what's needed in their community to ensure that we can revitalize rural Pennsylvania,” said Kopko, who added that the sessions are the start of a relationship.
The commission plans to publish its first publication in a few weeks, said Kopko, and will hold its first formal hearing Friday, Feb. 28 at the Railroaders Memorial Museum at 1200 9th Ave., Altoona, Blair County.
“That hearing will focus on local capacity, specifically the ability or inability of local governments, small nonprofit groups, small businesses and other organizations to plan for and adapt to the coming demographic changes. This is an important issue that we've heard time and time again at our listening and learning sessions,” said Kopko.
Kopko emphasized that people living across rural Pennsylvania can contact the Rural Population Revitalization Commission by email at commission@rural.pa.gov to join in the conversation.
The commission’s new members
- Kyle Kopko, chairman, Pennsylvania Rural Population Revitalization Commission; executive director, Center for Rural Pennsylvania
- Senator Judy Schwank
- Senator Judy Ward
- Representative Paul Takac
- Representative Michael Stender
- Albert Abramovic, Venango County Commissioner
- Mark Critz, Western regional director, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture; executive director, Pennsylvania Rural Development Council
- Lisa Davis, director, Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health
- Jordan Grady, president, Butler County Chamber of Commerce
- Nathan Lesh, vice president, Pennsylvania Future Farmers of America
- Betsy McClure, Greene County Commissioner
- Janet Pennington, board member, Southeastern Greene School District
- Drew Popish, Northeast regional director, Office of Governor Shapiro
- Dr. Karen Riley, president, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
- Gina Suydam, president, Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce
