Kate M. Harper

Catherine M. "Kate" Harper (born April 5, 1956) is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She has represented the 61st Legislative District in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania since 2000 and is a member of the Republican Party.

Harper was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2000 and has been re-elected four times. Prior to her election to the House, Harper was a member of the Lower Gwynedd Township Board of Supervisors.

Representative Harper is chairman of the House Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Aviation. She is Vice Chairman of the House Ethics Committee and also serves on the House Environmental Resources and Energy, Judiciary, Transportation, and Urban Affairs Committees. Kate is also involved among her state and community. It includes service on the Pennsylvania and Delaware Regional Water Committees; the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board Rules Committee; and the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network’s Board of Directors, a program which provides free legal services to low-income Pennsylvanians across the Commonwealth. Harper has a general practice, but focuses on land use, real estate and civil litigation in Bucks and Montgomery Counties.

Harper is a graduate of Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School, La Salle University, and Villanova University Law School. In addition to her legislative work, Harper is an attorney at law firm, Timoney Knox.

Representative Harper and her husband reside in Lower Gwynedd Township and have two sons. She is of Irish descent.

In 2002, the political website PoliticsPA named her to the list of "Smartest Legislators," describing her as a "policy wonk of policy wonks." Kate is also one of the few Montgomery County lawyers to have argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Kate and her husband, Paul J. Kelly, CPA, still reside in Lower Gwynedd Township and have two sons, Paul and Tom.

Kate brought in 13,727 votes or 60.69 percent of the vote to Leonard’s 8,875 or 39.24 percent, with 100 percent of the vote reported, according to unofficial results posted on the Montgomery County website. Kate has been prominent in leadership for the environment. She played a key role in the writing of impact fee legislation (Act 13 of 2012) to direct a portion of funding generated from natural gas drilling in the Commonwealth to statewide environmental programs. She has also been a major supporter of preserving and enhancing the state’s Growing Greener program. Harper proves this by how she extended the fee on trash sent to landfills (Act 90 of 2002) to support environmental initiatives and then by serving as the prime architect of the Growing Greener II initiative (Act 1 of 2005). After overwhelming approval by Pennsylvania’s voters in a referendum this act made $625 million in funding available for farmland preservation, open space and parks, and environmental projects.

Kate has received numerous awards due to her dedicated public service and being an advocate for the environment. These awards recognize her achievements: