Category: Pennsylvania Legislation

Laws proposed or passed in the Pennsylvania Legislature

Cox Online Petition For Ending Home Tax

State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129) is circulating an on-line petition to present to Gov. Tom Corbett to encourage him to make supporting the Property Tax Independence Act his highest priority in  his annual budget address, before the the state House and Senate,  Feb. 7.

The bill, which has yet to be introduced but is expected to be called HB 1776, would eliminate school property and local school nuisance taxes across the Commonwealth and  replace those taxes with funding from a single state source.

If such a law came into effect one would actually own one’s home rather than simply rent it from the government.

The petition can be found at the link.

I signed it.

Cox Online Petition For Ending Home Tax

Cox Online Petition For Ending Home Tax

Charitable PLCB Seeks To Aid Delaware

Charitable PLCB Seeks To Aid Delaware — In an act of amazing charity, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, Jan. 11, sought to help the small neighboring state of Delaware by raising the prices of some of its wines and liquors by a dollar or two.

For those Pennsylvanians who don’t have Naamans Road as a convenient location and yet can’t afford the new demands of their state, a group of British fellows who have spent time living in Saudi Arabia have created a website dedicated to revealing the special techniques they developed to enjoy life in that benighted place.

While we certainly don’t endorse anything illegal and merely post this link to inform and edify, the Brits swear their stuff is better than what Harrisburg sells and doesn’t give hangovers.

 

Charitable PLCB Seeks To Aid Delaware

No-To-Ocare Bill Before The PA. House

No-To-Ocare Bill Before The PA. House — A bill that would prevent significant parts of ObamaCare from being enforced in Pennsylvania has been laid on the table of the State House.

The bill, HB 42,  was released from House Appropriations Committee on Oct. 26 fulfilling a pledge made by Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Adolph (R-165) to Tea Party groups.

The committee vote was 21-14 with all Democrats against and all Republicans in favor.


The bill, introduced by Matthew Baker (R-68) on Jan. 19, says A law
or rule shall not compel, through penalties and fines, directly or
indirectly, any individual, employer or health care provider to
participate in any health care system.

It also specifically says that an individual or employer may pay directly for lawful health care services and shall not be required to pay penalties or fines for doing so; and specifically allows  health care providers to accept direct payments without penalties. It also prohibits state law enforcement and regulatory agencies from participating “in compliance with any Federal law, regulation or policy” that would compromise the “freedom of choice in health care” of any resident of the state.

No-To-Ocare Bill Before The PA. House

Texting Ban Looms For Pa. Drivers

The Pennsylvania House, yesterday, Oct. 31, voted 188-7 to pass SB 314 which bans texting while driving, and the state Senate approved the House’s revisions, today, 45-5 sending the bill the Governor for his expected signature.

Dissenting in the House were Speaker of the House Sam Smith (R-66), Daryl Metcalfe (R-12), Tom Creighton (R-37),  Gordon Denlinger (R-99), Jim Cox (R-129),  Scott Perry (R-92) and Stephen Bloom (R-199).

Dissenting in the Senate were Jake Corman (R-34), John Eichelberger (R-30), Mike Folmer (R-48), Charles McIllhenny (R-10) and Donald White (R-41).

The bill allows for the use of GPS devices and entering telephone numbers into cell phones.

The penalty is a $50 fine.

Pa. Senate Passes School Choice Bill

The Pennsylvania State Senate, yesterday, Oct. 26, passed SB 1, 27-22 sending it to the State House.

The vote was mostly along party-lines in the Republican-controlled institution with Democrat Daylin Leach (D-17) leading the opposition with claims that the bill will take money from poor school districts. He failed to note, however, that the money taken will then been given to the families of the poor children. He attempted to add an amendment prohibiting private schools from discriminating due to sexual orientation. It failed.

Democrat Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, however, who represents the 8th District which consists of a large section of southwest Philadelphia and a large section of southeast Delaware County, made an impassioned defense of the bill

Republicans who voted against the bill were Stewart Greenleaf of the 12th District; Lisa Baker of the 20th District;  John Gordner of the 27th District; Pat Vance of the 31st District; and Elder Vogel of the 47th District.

Democrats who voted for the bill were Williams; LeAnna Washington of the 4th District; and Andy Dinniman of the 19th District.

Not voting was Republican John Pippy of the 37th District.

The bill offers vouchers ranging from $5,765 to $13,905 to families with incomes of $29,000 whose children attend the 5 percent worst performing schools in the state that would allow them to  transfer their children to private or parochial schools. In the second year, the vouchers would also be offered to low-income students already attending private schools.

The bill also raises of the limit on the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (E.I.T.C.) from $75 million to $100 million for next two school years to $125 million for  2014-2015. Children from middle class families in all school districts are eligible for  E.I.T.C. scholarships.

Gov. Tom Corbett will almost certainly sign the bill if the House should pass it.

 

A Quiet Push To Reform Pa.’s Prevailing Wage Law

Pennsylvania’s prevailing wage law passed in 1961 requires all local governments and state agencies to pay workers a rate  determined by the state’s Secretary of Labor for any “construction, reconstruction, demolition, alteration and/or repair work.”

This law has been shown to hike labor costs for school additions and such by as much as 44 percent.

Seven bills, some which would radically reform how prevailing wage is handled in Pennsylvania, were voted out of the Labor and Industry Committee of the State House chaired by Rep. Ron Miller (R- 93) on Oct. 3.

The most significant would be HB 1191 sponsored by Rep. Ron Marsico (R-105) which exempts local governments (school districts, municipalities and counties) from prevailing wage requirements — unless they really, really want them.

That raises the question as to what local government could possible want them. Go to Upper Darby, stand on the west bank of Cobbs Creek and look east. See that big, steaming pit of greed, corruption and incompetence? That one.

Also voted out of committee were:

HB 709 sponsored by Warren Kampf (R-157) which simply exempts school districts from the requirements.

HB 1271 sponsored by Rep. Marsico which would clarify, and expand, the maintenance exemptions for road work from prevailing wage requirements.

HB 1329 sponsored by Fred Keller (R-85) which would raise  to $185,000 the point at which which projects become subject to prevailing wage requirements. The mark is now  set at $25,000 as it has been since 1961. That amount in 1961 dollars roughly equals $185,000 today. Keller’s bill would require the limit to be adjusted annually for inflation or deflation.

HB 1367 sponsored by Rep. Miller which would require the Secretary of Labor to use data from the Labor Department’s Center for Workforce and Analysis in determining the prevailing wage.

HB 1541 sponsored by Scott Perry (R-92) which would require a project to be at least 51-percent publicly funded to be subject to prevailing wage restrictions.

HB 1685  sponsored by John Bear (R-97) which would standardize and require the public listings of worker classifications.

All the bills would help the taxpayer. With HB 1191, however, the taxpayer might actually notice it.

Tea Partyers Haven’t Forgotten HB 42

The first meeting of the season of the Delaware County Patriots, tonight, Sept. 22, brought about 80 persons to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Newtown Square to hear Leo Knepper of Heritage Action for America-PA describe how the Pennsylvania’s Republican congressmen are no where near as fiscally conservative as is commonly thought,  and the inspiringly enthusiastic Jenn Stefano of American Prosperity Pa explain how it easy it is to win committee seats.

Mrs. Stefano, at the end of her talk, got pledges from a dozen-plus participants to run for the unheralded but important office.

Knepper singled out for special criticism Congressman Pat Meehan, whose 7th District includes Newtown Square. He said Meehan only scored a 48 percent on the Heritage Action Scorecard which charts the votes legislators make as whether they advance or detract from the cause of commonsense conservatism.

“On the big issues, he’s been there, but on the small issues he’s been dropping the ball” Knepper said.

Knepper gave an example as to how Meehan voted against a seemingly uncontroversial bill that would have cut farm subsidies to $250,000 and restrict them to actual farmers rather than seekers of tax breaks.

Knepper said the only members of Pennsylvania’s delegation to score at least an 80 on the score card were Congressman Joe Pitts of the 16th District and Sen. Pat Toomey. No other Republicans scored above a 60 he said.

Knepper said that the United States has reached the point where the debt equals the entire gross domestic product.

“We are going to collapse if we keep going at this rate,” he said.

Mrs. Stefano said time for talking was over and it was now up to Tea Partyers to start doing the walking, namely by running for office, specifically committee seats. Local committee people run at the precinct level and are the ones who pick the leaders of the established parties and write the party bylaws. 

It requires 10 signatures to get on the ballot, Mrs. Stefano said.

Republican bylaws require that each precinct be represented by a man and a woman. Often this office is unfilled.

Failing to get involved is a mark of shame, Mrs. Stefano said.

“You cannot say you are a patriot. Our children and grandchildren will have to pick up arms and fight and die for the things we gave away,” she passionately said.

Mrs. Stefano singled out Delco Patriot Lisa Esler for special praise.

“Politicians are afraid of her,” she said.

After the speakers, it was announced that the Delco Patriots were signing onto a push to get HB 42 to a vote in Harrisburg.

HB 42 is the proposed state law that would undermine much of ObamaCare in Pennsylvania.  It has been bottled up in the House Appropriation Committee since Feb. 8.

The committee is chaired by Bill Adolph of Springfield who represents the 165th District.

Adolph indicated to the Patriots on May 19 that there would be a vote on the bill before the end of the year.

Why Did Pa. Senate Strip Computers From Gaming Money?

Why Did Pa. Senate Strip Computers From Gaming Money?  
By Bob Guzzardi

The Pennsylvania Senate, June 28, stripped from the $62.823 million appropriations bill  for the state Gaming Control Board an amendment that would have allocated $1.5 million for a computer system for investigation and enforcement purposes.

The Vereb Amendment would effectively transfer investigation and enforcement of gaming to the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General.

So, what’s up with that? They computers would have separated the investigation and enforcement branch of gaming from the executive and policy branches. This would have alleviated the conflicts of interest found by Pennsylvania Grand Jury.

The bill, SB1062,  now returns to the House Rules Committee.

The amendment has been called the Vereb Amendment in honor of Montco Rep. Mike Vereb (R-150) albeit Curt Schroder (R-155) deserves a lot of credit as well.

Giving this money to the Gaming Control Board without this amendment would be like giving Chivas Regal to an alcoholic or mailing heroin to an addict.

The not-so-good-guys in this story are Senate leaders Jake Corman,  Dominic Pileggi,  Joe Scarnati, Jane Earll,  and Tommy Tomlinson of Bensalem.

So, again, what’s up with cutting funds for a computer system aimed at keeping tabs on an agency with known issues?

 

Why Did Pa. Senate Strip Computers From Gaming Money?

Pa. Senate OKs Searchable Budget Database

The Pennsylvania Senate unanimously passed a bill creating a searchable internet-accessible database of all state and local government funding and spending, along with that of  independent state-affiliated agencies such as the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the Commonwealth Financing Authority, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System, the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority, the State Public School Building Authority, the Pennsylvania Higher Educational Facilities Authority and the State System of Higher Education.

The news was tweeted by Sen Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-9) at 4:10 this afternoon, June 28.

The bill, HB 15, returns to the State House for concurrence.

The bill directs the website, to be called PennWATCH, to be available by Dec. 31, 2012.

The site will include:

 

  • The name and address of the Commonwealth agency or other entity receiving funding and the applicable identifier and classification under the vendor identification system
  • The amount of the funding action or expenditure.
  • The agency initiating the funding action or expenditure.
  •  The applicable appropriation and the appropriation fiscal year from which the funding action or expenditure is made.
  • A counter to show the number of times the website is accessed.
  • The funding source.


The site will also show the total number of individuals employed by each Commonwealth agency as of the 15th day of the previous month, and list by the name, position title and current annual salary for each individual employed by each Commonwealth agency.

Pileggi also tweeted that the Senate passed SB 326, which provides for certification of birth for stillbirths and is now before the Governor for his signature.

Pileggi also tweeted that the Senate unanimously passed SB 995, which provides that all operators of oil and gas wells in the state provide GPS coordinates to the state Department of Environmental Protection and 911 centers.

He noted the Senate is now taking up HB 1485 which is the bill setting the state budget for next year.

 

Pa. Senate OKs Searchable Budget Database

Voter ID Bill Now Before Pa Senate

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives, June 23, passed, 108-88, a bill requiring most voters to present photo identification at every election.

The bill is now before the Senate.

HB 934 was introduced, March 4, by Daryl Metcalfe (R-12) and 47 co-sponsors including Steve Barrar (R) whose 160th District includes much of southwest Delaware County.

The bill requires “electors” i.e. voters to present a document issued by either the State of Pennsylvania or the United States  which has a photograph of the individual to whom the document was issued along with an expiration date.

It also requires that the name of the individual to whom the document was issued conform to the name of the individual as it appears in the district register — a point which could be an annoying surprise to many long-time voters.

The bill allows those who have a religious objection to being photographed to present a valid-without-photo driver’s license or a valid-without-photo identification card issued by the Department of Transportation. The exception appears to have been written with the Amish in mind.