The House Intergovernmental Affairs Committee this week heard testimony supporting the need for legislation to create a Pennsylvania Geospatial Coordinating Council to more efficiently and effectively develop and share GIS information among different levels of government and private industry.

The legislation is House Bill 1304 (Fairchild-R-Union).

The first panel to testify included Brady Stroh, Director of the Center for Geospatial Information Services at Penn State Harrisburg, Todd Bacastow, Professor for Geospatial Intelligence at Penn State, Tehodore Atler, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Penn State and Ashis Pal, President of the Pennsylvania Chapter of MAPPS, a national association comprised of private firms in spatial data.

The second panel included testimony from county and municipal governments, including Ed Troxell, PA State Association of boroughs, Percy Dougherty, County Commissioners Association of PA and Commissioner Erick Collidge, Tioga County, Barry Hutchins, Lycoming County.

A third panel included written comments from David Terrell, PA Liaison, U.S. Geologic Survey and Kristen Miller, Governor’s Office of Administration.

The Committee is chaired by Rep. Curtis Thomas (D-Philadelphia) who concluded from all the supporting comments the Council should be established, but questions remained about how to fund it.

8/31/2007