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DeLuca’s H.B. 361 would establish an early voting process permitting voters to submit their ballot up to 15 days prior to Election Day. The County Board of Elections would be required to monitor early voting. Polling sites would be required to be open Monday through Friday for a minimum of eight hours and a total of eight hours on Saturday and Sunday.
“My bill is modeled after Florida’s early voting system which has proven successful. Thirty-five states have some form of early voting. It is time for Pennsylvania to become the 36th. This is a simple measure that further empowers the people of Pennsylvania by making it easier for them to exercise their constitutional right to vote,” DeLuca explained.
House Democratic Policy Committee looks at issues related to homelessness
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State Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown, D-Phila., who is chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, requested the hearing and served as chairwoman. Testifiers focused on the history, causes, magnitude and solutions for preventing and ending homelessness in Pennsylvania. The People’s Emergency Center has found that more than 34,000 Pennsylvanians, including over 9,400 children, experienced homelessness in 2011 and that the annual marginal cost of child homelessness in the Commonwealth is more than $352 million.
“There are a lot of assumptions about Pennsylvania’s homeless population -- who they are, where they live, why they’re homeless,” Brown said. “Today’s brave testifiers were helpful in uncovering some of the facts to get to the bottom of how we can most effectively prevent and curb homelessness in our Commonwealth.”
Marcellus Works, but renewables work better
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"The legislation could have been improved by expanding its scope to include other alternative fuel vehicles such as electric, hybrids and biofuels," said Vitali, Democratic chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee. "I offered amendments that would do that, but they were voted down largely by House Republicans."
Vitali said electric and hybrid vehicles are better for the environment than natural gas vehicles because they emit less carbon dioxide and other pollutants that are causing climate change. He said it will not be possible to stabilize the Earth's climate unless the use of renewable energy is greatly expanded, and this package does not do that. Other fuels also help Pennsylvania industry. Electric vehicles are charged by electricity generated by natural gas-powered power plants; biofuels are produced by soybeans grown by Pennsylvania farmers.
Legalizing civil unions proposed by Cohen
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"Civil unions represent the middle-of-the-road compromise position between constitutionally banning and permitting gay marriages and have been embraced by both advocates for LGBT rights and a growing number of conservatives," Cohen said.
"Nothing in this bill would require any religion or any clergyman to perform any ceremony uniting people in a civil union. This legislation will merely offer committed gay couples the same legal rights that are bestowed upon married people without the status of marriage."
Caltagirone: Mental health study measure approved by House committee
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"Particularly, the focus should be on the treatment of criminal defendants diagnosed with mental illness," Caltagirone said. "More often than not mental illness is the tie that binds the criminal to the crime and it's time to dig deeper into that issue."
According to recent estimates by the state Department of Corrections, an estimated 40 percent of female inmates and 20 percent of male inmates suffer from a form of serious mental illness.
O'Brien bill to help city homeowners clears House committee
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O'Brien's bill (H.B. 390) would offer relief to residents who have lived in their homes for decades but who do not have the resources to pay higher tax bills as a result of new and much higher values, such as the elderly on fixed incomes. Philadelphia would be required to use age and financial need when considering relief for long-term owner-occupants, often referred to as gentrification relief, through 2023. The city would continue to have the authority to use age and financial need in 2024 and beyond if it chose to do so, just as every other county in the Commonwealth is authorized to do.
"Gentrification is meant to improve and revive established and historic neighborhoods, not to tax people out of their homes," O'Brien said. "But that's what AVI will do to too many people who have been part of their neighborhoods for years and deserve to remain so. My bill and others like it will do a lot to relieve a burden that was quickly, and with much disorganization by the city, placed on Philadelphia homeowners.
House Urban Affairs Committee approves Philly tax relief package
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Parker, who is chairwoman of the Philadelphia Delegation, said the bills (H.B.s 388, 390 and 391) represent months of collaboration among members of the House and Senate delegations, the Nutter administration and city council.
"When the city began its efforts to implement AVI last year, the General Assembly acted by delaying implementation of the plan for one year, passed legislation to include Philadelphia homeowners in the Homestead Exemption Act already afforded to all other Pennsylvania homeowners, and allowed the city to adjust school district property tax rates to prevent large, unintended tax increases for all property owners," Parker said. "But we also recognized the need to do more for the many city homeowners where homestead relief would not be enough. The commonsense legislation approved by the committee today is a positive step toward providing even greater relief to residents as they transition to the new rates under AVI."
Matzie urges Treasurer McCord to halt NICUSA payment
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The contract, which was awarded to NICUSA without a competitive bid process, was touted by the administration because it wasn’t supposed to incur any cost to the state.
“The contract was supposed to have no direct cost to the state. As far as I can tell there weren’t plans for this cost in the budget, so the question is where is the money supposed to come from?” Matzie said. “That is why I am asking Treasurer McCord to stop these payments to allow time to ensure that any such payment is appropriate.”
House GOP renews attack on worker wages
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Keller, D-Phila., said the labor committee last week voted to move Republican-backed, anti-prevailing wage legislation (H.B.s 665 and 796) to the full House for consideration. He voted against the bills, as did all Democratic members of the committee.
House Bill 796 would increase the threshold for prevailing wage on public construction projects from $25,000 to $100,000. House Bill 665 would eliminate prevailing wage from certain public road construction and maintenance projects by redefining what would be considered maintenance.
House approves measures mandating child abuse training
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Amendments authored by Rozzi were a part of the bills and would allow mandated reporters to receive credit for training mandated by current law.
“It’s important that mandated reporters are well-equipped to recognize the signs of child abuse and how to go about reporting such tragic incidents,” Rozzi said. “I’m grateful my colleagues adopted my amendment that eliminates redundancy for those who’ve already received training approved by the Department of Public Welfare.”
Bill would require schools to keep EpiPens on hand for student food allergies
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Modeled after a 2011 Illinois law, the bill (H.B. 1210) is designed to save the lives of children with food allergies in the event of life-threatening allergic reactions.
"The number of children with reported food allergies has increased dramatically over the past two decades, with many unaware that they even have a food allergy," Freeman said. "By requiring schools to maintain a supply of EpiPens, my legislation can save the life of a child experiencing anaphylaxis."
White’s bill to protect privacy of social media users reported out of committee
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House Bill 1130, also known as the Social Media Privacy Protection Act, was approved 25-0 and is now headed to the full House of Representatives for consideration.
White said he introduced the legislation after the practice made national headlines last year, when a state corrections officer in Maryland complained that the Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services sought his password to search personal Facebook posts during a re-certification interview.
Dermody and Hanna object to budget-busting tax credits
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Democratic Leader Frank Dermody and Democratic Whip Mike Hanna
said they were disappointed by rulings made recently by House Speaker
Sam Smith with the support of the Republican majority to deny
consideration of a series of amendments to bills that create costly
state tax credits that benefit the natural gas industry.“We don’t have a problem with efforts to promote consumption of cleaner-burning natural gas fuel, but we have a problem with how the Republicans would pay for that,” Hanna said.
“They propose to suck millions of dollars out of the state budget,” Dermody said. “That money will be taken from schools, health care, public safety, environmental protection and other critical programs. The natural gas industry itself ought to bear the cost of this kind of effort that will ultimately help its bottom line.”
House adopts Caltagirone constable resolution
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"One of the primary goals of this study is to come up with a uniform set of standards for constables across Pennsylvania," Caltagirone said. "Because it's been so long since any substantive reforms were made to the constable system, confusion regarding constable roles and regulations has resulted.
"Duties are housed in one department while training requirements are in another. Having one consolidated set of standards would help with efficiency and accountability within the entire system."
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