Republican state Senate candidate Lloyd Smucker on Saturday put forth his first policy proposal of the campaign, advocating cutting part of the state budget by 2 percent a year and applying the savings to property tax relief.

Smucker, a businessman and West Lampeter Township supervisor, chose the Nickel Mine Floor Covering business near Quarryville in which to unveil his "2 for 4" spending reduction plan and to pick up the endorsements of other business executives in the 13th state Senate district.

"I know it doesn't sound like much," Smucker said, "but when you do the math, it's almost $1.2 billion in savings" over four years.

"Most important," he said, "this is real property tax relief. It's not a tax shift. ... And it is not a smoke-and-mirrors trick that relies on gambling."

The announcement capped another contentious week in the GOP campaign, which featured more criticism of Smucker's fundraising and an attack by Steve McDonald's campaign on Smucker and Paul Thibault as soft on Second Amendment rights.

Smucker, McDonald, Thibault and Bill Neff are battling for the Republican nomination on April 22 to succeed Sen. Gib E. Armstrong, who's retiring at the end of the year. The winner faces Democrat Jose Urdaneta in November.

'Fiscal discipline'
Smucker and about 35 supporters met Saturday morning in the Nickel Mine warehouse to talk about spending and property taxes.

As a businessman, said Dave King, who owns Nickel Mine with his father, Dave King Sr., "I understand the burdens" imposed by state spending, "and I'm getting tired of it.

"I want change in Harrisburg, which is why I'm supporting Lloyd Smucker."

"I'm not really politically motivated," said Ray Shirk, owner of the Securus Group in Lancaster, "but when I heard Gib Armstrong was retiring ... there's nobody I'd rather see in there than Lloyd Smucker."

"He's brought strong fiscal management to West Lampeter," said John Reed, a business attorney with the Barley Snyder law firm, while improving services and building consensus on such projects as the public-private YMCA partnership.

Smucker's business backers have formed "Local Business Leaders for Smucker." Endorsers at Saturday's event included John Nelson Thomas of Thomas Trucking, Valerie Moul of Godfrey Advertising, Tim Brown, CEO of Sageworth Financial,  David Felpel of Assurance Financial, Barry Hershey of Apple Belting, Todd Witmer of Witmer McCoy Masonry and Barbara Lynch of David Lynch Associates.

Smucker said he would use his business experience to bring "real fiscal discipline" to state government.

That would include introducing "2 for 4" legislation requiring a 2 percent cut in all state spending except for education and debt service over each of the four years of his term.

"Businesses large and small across our country are being asked every day to reduce spending 5, 10, 15 percent," Smucker said. "Families cut spending to save for education, pay the bills and more. State government should have to do it too."

State spending has "steadily grown above the rate of inflation and above the rate of wage growth for working families," he said. "If we don't stop it, it is a train wreck waiting to happen."

Figures released by his campaign show the 2 percent cut would apply to $15.3 billion of the $27.3 billion 2007-08 general fund, once education and debt service are subtracted.

By the fourth year, according to Smucker's campaign, the $15.3 billion would be reduced to $14.1 billion, a savings of nearly $1.2 billion.

"I will make sure that it is used for guaranteed, real property tax relief and nothing else," he said. "And I mean real property tax relief, delivered to homeowners in the form of a check every year."

Smucker said later that he hadn't yet figured out how much individual homeowners would get. First-year savings would be about $306 million.

Gov. Ed Rendell has been promising $1 billion a year in tax relief from tax revenues generated by slot machines, although the money has not yet been released to homeowners.

Smucker also called for passing a "Taxpayers' Bill of Rights" to require a "supermajority" for tax increases, cutting bureaucracy, using zero-based budgeting, cutting business taxes, drawing "industries of the future" to the state and backing health care reforms, including tort reform and health savings accounts.

"No one else is calling for this because no one has the perspective of a businessman — only that of a career politician," he said.

Campaign fusillade
Saturday's speech had the Smucker campaign making news rather than reacting to it, as it had to earlier.

Monday, McDonald blasted  Smucker and Thibault, county commissioner from 1996-2003, for failing to overturn gun bans in local ordinances.

McDonald — who received the Calvin Coolidge Notary Award Wednesday from the National Notary Association for his work as county recorder of deeds on the statewide e-Notary program — charged that Thibault did not act to overturn a ban on weapons in county parks that was enacted in the 1970s.

Smucker, according to McDonald, also did not try to overturn a similar ban on guns on township property.

McDonald said the gun laws violate state law and the U.S. and state constitutions.

Saturday, Smucker said that since 2001, when he got involved in West Lampeter government, no resident has complained about the ordinance. But "certainly we will be looking at it and correcting any part of it that is not in compliance."

Thibault was quoted earlier as saying he wasn't aware the county ordinance prohibited guns.

Smucker also took more heat last week on his announcement last month that he had raised $185,000 in the first two weeks of his campaign, without releasing the names of donors. Ron Harper Jr., publisher of 5thEstate.com, has been pushing Smucker to name his contributors.

Under state law, he doesn't have to detail contributors and expenses until the next filing deadline on April 11.

Responding to criticism by national Constitution Party chairman Jim Clymer, Smucker on Saturday reiterated that his campaign has complied with all campaign finance laws and will continue to do so.

Thibault, meanwhile, was sticking to issues, saying Thursday that he would protect local governments from the costs of "unfunded mandates" by limiting state government's power to impose such mandates.

"If I believe a state program should be funded, I will have the integrity to find funding in the state budget for it," he said in a statement. "I won't just stand up and take credit for a good-sounding idea and then pass the buck on to the county and local government officials."

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Helen Colwell Adams is a Sunday News staff writer. E-mail her at hcolwell@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-4962.