PA Independent Week in Review – Dec. 2, 2011
By PA Independent
HARRISBURG — Lawmakers will return Monday for the final three weeks of the legislative session this year, and several big ticket items remain on the agenda.
However, it’s beginning to look a lot like they will not get much done.
“The only priority right now is congressional redistricting,” said Steve Miskin, spokesman for House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny.
Gov. Tom Corbett said Thursday that he still wants the General Assembly to pass school vouchers and liquor privatization legislation before departing for the Christmas holiday. But lawmakers have to approve state and congressional redistricting maps before the end of the year, and that has now pushed other items down on the agenda.
The other major issue is a state policy on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale.
The state House and state Senate have passed Marcellus shale bills that include environmental protections, drilling regulations and a per-well impact fee, but differences between the bills have yet to be worked out.
Cities and towns statewide that have fallen into distressed economic status and entered the state’s Act 47 recovery program are having difficulty finding their way back out.
One of the primary obstacles has been the cost of government employees.
"Eighty percent of our ($83.9 million) budget is employee cost," Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty said. "We've raised taxes, laid off workers and still most of our budget is employee costs."
When Doherty took office, Scranton employed 680 workers. By the beginning of his second term in 2006, the city had 420 employees on the payroll and, today, that number is down to 380. With 29 firefighters facing layoffs next month along with 19 clerical workers and 10 employees in the city's tax office, the city projects having 332 employees for 2012.
Lawmakers and executive officials in Pennsylvania state government received an automatic 3 percent pay increase Thursday.
Rank-and-file lawmakers will see their salaries climb from $79,000 to more than $82,000, while legislative leaders' salaries will jump from $115,000 to more than $118,000. Members of the General Assembly also receive generous benefits that require payment of only 1 percent for health insurance and daily expense payments of $157 for food and housing that do not have to be tracked with receipts for every session day.
The average Pennsylvania worker is paid $43,000 annually, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The increased pay has a ripple effect. Even if lawmakers decline the pay increases this year — keeping their current salary of $79,613 — or give the money away to charity, as many do, the higher amount is figured into pension calculations.
The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue is placing stricter rules on online merchants who do not collect sales taxes for the state.
In announcing the new policy this week, state Secretary of Revenue Dan Meuser said it was supposed to clarify laws regarding which businesses must collect sales tax for the state. Pennsylvania estimates that it is losing out on about $380 million annually from unpaid online sales taxes.
“It’s simply a matter of fairness under the existing law, and it’s essential that both e-commerce retailers with nexus and brick-and-mortar stores in Pennsylvania, many of which are small businesses employing thousands of Pennsylvanians with retail jobs, are treated equally,” Meuser said in a statement.
Under the new rules, retailers that store goods in Pennsylvania warehouses — even if they are operated by a separate company — would be required to collect sales taxes, a directive aimed at Amazon.com, the largest online retailer that does not collect sales tax for the state.
Retail groups have been advocating for the new policy, which they say will balance out the unfair advantage that some online sellers have over traditional stores.
However, some are concerned that Amazon and other retailers will terminate advertising and contractual relationships with Pennsylvania businesses, as they have done in other states, because of the new law.
Lawmakers want to take further steps to address concerns about illegal prostitution at massage parlors in Pennsylvania.
Bipartisan state House and Senate proposals, House Bill 235 and Senate Bill 338, would require rest stops, bars, motels, welcome areas, strip clubs, massage parlors and other businesses to post an 8 ½-foot-by-11-foot sign with a 28-point font size that reads:
"If you or someone you know is being forced to engage in any activity and cannot leave — whether it is commercial sex, housework, farm work or any other activity — call the National Human Trafficking Hotline.''
The number is 1-888-373-7888.
Lawmakers want these proposals to put a dent in local prostitution, which is prominent at local massage parlors, said state Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, who is sponsoring HB 235.
"We need to curtail this horrific crime that destroys lives. People, who own and operate massage parlors or spas that are running these illegal practices as well as other businesses, should be put on notice," said state Rep. Paul Clymer said.
Pennsylvania residents now are allowed to have wine shipped directly to their homes — but only if they are buying from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, or PLCB.
For now, buying directly from out-of-state wineries is still off limits, despite a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case that said the PLCB’s system is unconstitutional.
Legislation has been delayed as the Pennsylvania Legislature and the PLCB have wrestled with how to collect taxes on the shipment of wine and how to prevent minors from purchasing wine over the Internet, officials said.
It is the job of the Legislature, not the PLCB, to enact measures that would legalize the direct shipment of wine to homes, said Patrick Stapleton, a member of the board since 1997.
"We have had no control over that. The law has to be changed to reflect the Supreme Court's decision," Stapleton said.
Bills sponsored by Democrats and Republicans to allow for the direct shipment of wine are pending in the General Assembly.
