Weekly Legislative Report

Monday, July 6, 2009

In this report…

·        Six Days After Deadline, Still No Budget

·        Reported Deficit as Large as Anticipated 

·        Special Education Bill Receives Committee Approval

·        Committee Advances Internet Advertising Bill

·        Yudichak’s Legislation Calls for Hold on Property Assessments

Six Days After Deadline, Still No Budget

The House has designated every day in July as a session day; the Senate is expected to be in session through Friday of this week. Reaching agreement on a budget is the focus of activity, yet action on other bills is also expected to occur. HB 1051 (Sturla), which deals with background checks for employees of the public school system, and HB 1754 (Grucela), which requires school districts be given advance notice of planned residential development, are on the House Calendar. The following bills of interest are on the Senate Calendar:

SB 624 (Gordner):  Amends the School Code providing for participation in school athletics, publications and organizations by students who do not attend the public schools;

SB 968 (Dinniman): Amends the School Code dealing with seclusion; and

SB 971 (McIlhinney): Amends the School Code providing for the appointment of a tax collector, for requirements of a school district collecting taxes, for bond of appointed collectors and providing for fair compensation to elected tax collectors. PASBO opposes this legislation. Click here to read a memo sent to the Senate Education Committee.

Neither the House nor Senate Education Committees have meetings scheduled.

Reported Deficit as Large as Anticipated

Last week the Department of Revenue released end-of-fiscal year collections in which a $3.25 billion FY 2008-09 deficit was identified. For July, the General Fund took in $2.3 billion in revenue, a $415.3 million shortfall. Personal income tax collections in June totaled $818.4 million, which is $207.1 below estimate. For the year, personal income tax revenues ended at  $1.3 billion below estimate. Sales tax revenues also were below estimate in June, totaling $675.6 million, which is $67.6 million less than anticipated. Monthly revenues for the Realty Transfer Tax came in at $27.1 million, $117 million less than estimate

Special Education Bill Receives Committee Approval

HB 704 (Sturla) was passed by the House Education Committee last week. Under the legislation, the special education funding formula would be based on a five-year average of actual student enrollment in special education; a single multiplier of 1.3, reflecting additional costs for educating students with all levels of disability above the “base cost” for other students; an additional multiplier providing funding for districts that raise their average rate and quality of educating eligible students in regular classrooms; and annual adjustments for inflation, local wealth, tax effort and local cost factors. 

The House Education Committee also approved HB 1148 (Murt), legislation which amends the Public School Code to require the Department of Education to develop guidelines for managing food allergies in schools which shall be posted on the Department’s Internet website.

Committee Advances Internet Advertising Bill

The House Judiciary Committee has reported HB 1757 (Creighton), sending it to the full House for consideration. The legislation provides for electronic publication of legal notices in lieu of publishing said notices in newspapers of general circulation. Under the bill, there must be a service agreement with an Internet service provider to maintain a website accessible by the public at least 98% of the time every day of the year. The website must be registered with the office of information technology of the office of administration. The link of the notices webpage must be prominently displayed. The website must contain a link to a location to register complaints about access failures. Electronic notices posted on the Internet website must remain posted until the last posting date required by law, or until the event related to the notice has taken place. Similar bills exist in the Senate, SB 419 (Robbins), and in the House, HB 795 (McIlvaine Smith).

Yudichak’s Legislation Calls for Hold on Property Assessments

HB 1661 (Yudichak) was voted out of the House Urban Affairs Committee last week. The legislation calls for a moratorium on court-ordered, countywide property assessments pending a study of the state's property tax reassessment system. Related legislation, HR 334 (Levdansky), calls for the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, in conjunction with the Local Government Commission and State Tax Equalization Board, to study and compare Pennsylvania's current property reassessment system with those in other states.