Weekly Legislative Report

Monday, August 3, 2009

In this report…

·        Governor’s Desk Awaits SB850

·        Budget Impasse Causes PDE to Halt First Subsidy Payment

·        Chambers Could Move to Approve Exceptions to RTKL

·        Action on Omnibus School Code Bill Likely

·        Legal Advertising on House Committee Agenda

·        Special Election for 24^th Senatorial District Announced

Governor’s Desk Awaits SB850

Two public hearings on HB1416 (D. Evans) were held last week by the Conference Committee consisting of Sens. Pileggi, Corman and J. Costa and Reps. D. Evans, Eachus and S. Smith. Additional meetings were held at the Governor’s residence over the weekend. Those meetings yielded no progress, however.

Today, the Senate and House will meet in session. The House plans to pass SB 850 (Corman), the Senate Republican budget bill, so that it can get to the Governor on Tuesday.  He has said that he will line item veto more than 600 of the line items in the budget leaving only those that are necessary so that state employees can be paid and the basic functions of state government can continue.

Democratic lawmaker Nick Kotik is expected to offer an amendment with which House Republicans agree. The amendment would provide for a $27.5 billion spending plan, approximately $400 million lower than the Governor’s plan, without any new taxes. Education would receive a $150 million increase. A suspension of the rules is necessary for the consideration of the amendment. If it is adopted, the bill would go back to the Senate for concurrence.

For the remainder of the week, the House is scheduled to be in session through Friday. The Senate currently has no session days scheduled beyond today.

Budget Impasse Causes PDE to Halt First Subsidy Payment

Subsidy payments scheduled to be sent to school districts will not occur, according to PDE.  “Until a budget is in place, the Department of Education cannot legally authorize payments to districts, meaning the districts will have to operate without the state’s share of education dollars until lawmakers approve a spending plan,” said PDE Secretary Zahorchak.

In response, the Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign of which PASBO is a member said, “it is unfortunate that the Commonwealth was unable to uphold its Constitutional responsibility to pay its bills, even as property taxpayers are expected to keep up with theirs.”

For more information, visit the PASBO News box: http://www.pasbo.org.

Chambers Could Move to Approve Exceptions to RTKL

HB1667 (Hanna), reported by the House State Government Committee last week, amends the Right-to-Know Law (RTKL) to exempt public officials’ birthdates as public record. An amendment adopted in Committee exempts the birthdate of any employee of a school entity. A vote on the House floor could occur this week.

In the Senate, a vote could occur on a similar bill, SB993 (Piccola). It amends the School Code to provide for the confidentiality of school employees’ home addresses. This issue is particularly timely given the Commonwealth Court’s temporary order issued last week in which it was determined that “the release of home addresses of all public school employees is hereby stayed until further order of this Court.”  To read the Office of Open Records’ response to the order, click here: Advisory Available Regarding Home Addresses of Public Employees Available

The following bills are also on the Senate Calendar:

SR156 (Piccola): A resolution in support of the State Board of Education’s compromise regarding statewide end-of-course testing requirements and voluntary Keystone Exams.

SB107 (Pileggi): Creates the “Governmental Salary Information Act,” requiring the State Treasurer to post salary information including aggregate amount of supplemental compensation for the officers and employees of the executive, legislative and judicial departments of state governments on an official website. Local agencies would be required to post similar information their official websites.

SB1007 (Dinniman): Amends the School Code to add changes to the actions of a school board on a superintendent’s contract after a primary election.

SB1009 (Kasunic): Amends the School Code to require each school, whether public or private, to have at least one member of the school staff trained and certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) present at the school premises at all times. The bill was amended in committee to clarify that a school should have a staff member on the premises during the school day to the greatest extent possible.

HB1754 (Grucela): Amends the Municipalities Planning Code, requiring that school districts be sent notice of final approvals of residential development plans.

In action last week, the Senate passed SB441 (Vance) which adds certified registered nurse practitioner as qualified to certify the physical and mental fitness of an applicant for a teaching certificate and updates the disqualifications of teacher candidate.

Action on Omnibus School Code Bill Likely

The House Education Committee will meet tomorrow to consider HB11 (Roebuck), an omnibus School Code bill, providing for many of the bills already passed by the committee, including basic and special education funding, and other provisions that have not yet received consideration, including single-prime and separate-prime bids. Also on the agenda is SB 736 (Orie). The bill amends the School Code to allow school aged children to possess and self-administer epinephrine auto injectors.

The Senate Education Committee is scheduled to have a public hearing on school consolidation on Friday at St. Francis University in Loretto.

Legal Advertising on House Committee Agenda

The House Judiciary Committee will meet to consider HB1876 (Hornaman). The bill amends Title 45 (Legal Notices), adding a definition of community paper of mass dissemination and further providing that community papers of mass dissemination may be utilized for legal advertising. PASBO submitted a letter to the committee in support of the bill, saying the legislation would provide needed relief from the continued escalating costs related to advertising legal notices.

Special Election for 24^th Senatorial District Announced

A special election to fill the seat vacated by former State Senator Rob Wonderling (R-Montgomery) will be held on September 29, 2009. Wonderling resigned his seat last Tuesday; he is taking the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Rep. Bob Mensch (R-Montgomery) has expressed interest in filling the seat. A democratic candidate has not yet been determined.