State Rep. Mike Tobash, whose Schuylkill County-based district includes the far northern end of Dauphin County, announced Tuesday he will not seek re-election to a sixth term this year.
Tobash, a local insurance agent by profession, said he was honoring his long-held belief that public officials should not make a career in the same office, and that 10 years is enough in the state House. He had briefly considered making a race for the Republican nomination for state Auditor General this year, but ultimately decided against that as well.
In the House, Tobash is probably best known for his work on efforts to reform Pennsylvania’s major public employee pension systems. Those efforts culminated in 2017, with the passage of a bill that puts most state workers and school teachers hired after 2019 in a hybrid plan that combined elements of a 401(k) savings plan with a smaller defined benefit.
In what remains of his current term, Tobash said he will remain “fully engaged in supporting constituents and community leaders, as well as working with House leaders on a number of bills, including" a Tobash-drafted plan to consolidates the investment management functions of those same retirement plans.
The 125th is anchored in the western end of Schuylkill County but Dauphin County communities in the district include the boroughs of Berrysburg, Elizabethville, Gratz, Lykens, Pillow and Williamstown, and Lykens, Mifflin, Washington, Wiconisco, and WIlliams townships.