New Ringgold small businessman and council president Larry Padora has declared his candidacy for the Schuylkill County Board of Commissioners.

Padora, 37, and his family own and operate the Italian Bakery in Tamaqua, which produces over 100,000 loaves of bread a year for area grocers and caterers.He is the president of New Ringgold Borough Council, on which he's served for seven years, which has the lowest tax millage of any municipality in the County.Padora is also chairman of the Schuylkill County Tax Collection Committee (TCC), which oversees the collection of the county's Earned Income Tax (EIT). Padora was integral in negotiating an EIT rate of 1.35 percent, the smallest in the state, which provided tax relief to every municipality in Schuylkill County.Padora said a top strategy for getting the cost of county government under control is reforming the platinum pension system."We cannot, we should not, and we will not make any changes to the pensions of those who are retired or currently paying into the system," he said. "But when new hires come in, they should be enrolled in a 401(k) pension plan, which will give them a nice nest egg while giving the over-taxed county residents much needed financial relief."If elected, Padora said he would refuse to take a county pension. He said he would also limit himself to two terms in office.