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Robyn Colajezzi supports additional unemployment compensation

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From COVID-19 to school sports, small business relief, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, housing security and climate change, the top issues facing Bucks County voters mirror concerns across the nation.

As voters head to the polls on Nov. 3, they’ll select a president as well as local officials to represent them in Harrisburg. Those representatives will vote on matters effecting Bucks County residents and their daily lives and livelihoods.

Robyn Colajezzi of Richland Township is a Democrat running for a seat in the 145th District Pennsylvania state House of Representatives.

She understands disaster management through her work as director of marketing for SERVPRO of Upper Bucks in Perkasie and as an auxiliary police officer in the Quakertown Police Department.

“As a professional who works in emergency and disaster mitigation, I have been entrenched in the novel coronavirus since mid-March” Colajezzi said.

The daughter of an immigrant father – who ran a restaurant in the Lehigh Valley, Colajezzi understands the heartbreak of shuttering a business. She said the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic played a major role in local and national business shutdowns this year.

“Part of my job is to help small businesses create Emergency Preparedness Plans for all disasters. The COVID crisis has brought this practice to the forefront,” she said.

She said statewide shutdowns were an important part of the initial pandemic response.

“The bottom line, due to the complete uncertainty and the vast unknowns about this new virus, [was] there was no choice but for our country to respond with efforts to contain the spread,” she said.

From self-isolation and business closures to stringent rules for essential workers, she said the early response was aimed at containing the spread of the disease.

Colajezzi said the definition of a small business – those employing 500 or less, needed to be re-examined.

“The truth of the matter is that nearly half of these “small businesses” employ less than that, 33% employ less than 99 people. Those are the real small businesses who are suffering,” Colajezzi said.

To combat the rising costs of prescription drugs, she proposes drug cost caps.

And while furloughed employees should be required to return to work, if offered their previous jobs, additional unemployment benefits should be available to those who have experienced permanent job loss due to the pandemic. She supports education and job skills training programs.

Colajezzi proposes pandemic relief to both landlords and tenants, so money is available and distributed equitably on both sides. “This pandemic is hitting both tenants and landlords – hard,” she said.

Colajezzi said House Bill 2797, which proposes that local governments should control school sports and audiences, is “a minute part of the big picture. Limiting the size of gatherings should not be a ‘pick and choose’ exercise, but rather based on science and health and safety guidelines. We are all in this together and must work cohesively to help save lives,” Colajezzi said.

As a volunteer with the Quakertown Police Department, she said she understands the need to restructure police departments to fight crime, and not mental illness or substance addiction.

“I fully support restructuring police agencies to help better protect our communities, while giving our officers the resources they need,” she said.

And Colajezzi said she believes in science – whether tackling a virus or mitigating the impact of climate change.

“I will fiercely defend our environment for future generations,” Colajezzi said.

The 145th state House District is made up of more than 65,000 residents from East Rockhill, Milford, Richland, Springfield and West Rockhill townships, as well as Quakertown, Richlandtown, Trumbauersville, Perkasie and Sellersville and boroughs.


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