pa-legis
COVID-19 in Pa.: Wolf, lawmakers struggle for common ground on pandemic relief
In a day of fiery rhetoric, the Pennsylvania General Assembly advanced a second wave of legislation to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pa. House OKs remote voting as negotiations on coronavirus relief bills move forward
The changes came after a weekend of sharp words, pressure to abide by new social distancing norms, and follow three hours of mostly closed doors meetings Monday.
Can a closed Capitol be transparent? Yes, say experts
Under the new rules, state employees or individuals, such as journalists, with key card access will be able to enter the Capitol, according to the Department of General Services announcement.
From school choice to liquor privatization, how the Pa. House will change with Mike Turzai’s exit
Ending a week of speculation, House Speaker Mike Turzai announced Thursday he is retiring from the Pennsylvania House.
A $9.50 minimum wage by 2022? The Pa. Senate just passed it. Now it’s up to the House.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, passed 42-7. Every Democrat and the majority of Republicans supported the bill.
Opponents of cap-and-trade contemplate legislative, legal options to stop RGGI
Tax carbon? You’re gonna need a bill for that. It’s a message that Republicans — and some Democrats — have hammered home ever since Gov. Tom Wolf announced in early October he was forging ahead with a plan to enter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. RGGI, as it’s known in official shorthand, is a nine […]
Wolf meets with Dems to mend fences, pitch minimum wage hike
The 40-minute, closed door session placated some Democrats, but left others skeptical
Top Pa. labor leader expresses disappointment with proposed Wolf minimum wage deal
One of the state’s top labor leaders said Friday that Gov. Tom Wolf was tentatively moving to gradually increase Pennsylvania’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by June 2021. Rick Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO which represents 700,000 union workers, told the Capital-Star that he had reviewed draft language that would increase the wage […]
State budget agency projects billion-dollar plus deficits in early 2020’s — and that’s without a recession
Better get used to budget fights. Pennsylvania’s fiscal watchdog agency is predicting deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually over the next five years — some topping a billion dollars in the early 2020’s. The Independent Fiscal Office, a state agency tasked with analyzing economic and budgetary data for the General Assembly, predicted […]
Wolf signs bill to let synagogues, mosques and churches apply for $5M in safety grants
In response to last year’s Tree of Life shooting, Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday signed into law a $5 million program that provides grants to beef up security at nonprofits, such as houses of worship or a faith-based community center. The program was originally proposed by Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-Chester, as part of a larger […]
Bill that allows hunting in Pennsylvania on three Sundays a year is closer to reaching Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk
The bill pitted rural lawmakers, hoping to keep countrysides clear of orange vested hunters for at least one day a week, against the National Rifle Association and pro-hunting groups.
There’s bipartisan agreement Pa.’s absentee voting law is broken. Will the Legislature act?
Faced with a smorgasbord of potential electoral reforms at an informal meeting Monday, a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers gravitated toward expanding Pennsylvania’s restrictive and archaic absentee ballot rules. “I hope we can finally finalize a plan to bring no-excuse absentee ballots to Pennsylvania,” Senate State Government Committee Chairman Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, said […]