News

From the Office of the Governor

Governor Tom Wolf today announced that in 2018, the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA) has approved more than $84 million in loan financing throughout the year. This financing will support the creation and retention of more than 4,300 jobs in the commonwealth.

     “Providing access to capital is one of the best ways we can help business of all sizes grow and expand,” Governor Wolf said. “The loans approved in 2018 through PIDA are helping lay the groundwork for these businesses to create jobs and positively impact their local economies for years to come.”

     In 2018, PIDA has approved $84,034,418 in low-interest loans that have resulted in $119,561,991 in private investment and supported the creation and retention of 4,316 full-time jobs. PIDA is an independent authority staffed and regulated through the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). The authority provides capital for building acquisition, construction and renovation work, machinery, and equipment loans along with working capital lines of credit, primarily for manufacturers, industrial developers, research and development firms, agricultural processors, and employers looking to establish national or regional headquarters in Pennsylvania.

     One such loan recipient is Creekside Springs in Beaver County, which provides high-quality water to beverage companies, supermarkets, large retailers, and businesses located in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In June 2018, Governor Wolf announced that Creekside Springs was approved for a $400,000 loan to upgrade its bottling and production line in its New Brighton facility.

     “The PIDA loan advanced our timeline to install the production line and transform our New Brighton facility from a warehouse into a functional bottling facility faster than anticipated,” said James Sas, managing partner of Creekside Springs. “Pennsylvania felt like the right place for Creekside Springs to grow and operating here has exceeded our expectations.”

     At today’s PIDA board meeting, High Functional Plastics Manufacturing, LLC was approved for a $350,000, 10-year loan at a 3.75 percent rate through the Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance. The loan will be used for the purchase of machinery and equipment to be installed and utilized at the company’s 12,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Dunmore, Lackawanna County. High Functional Plastics Manufacturing is a startup manufacturer of corrosion-resistant extruded plastic sheets used in the construction of semiconductor processing equipment and similar electronic products.

From the Office of the Governor

From pennlive.com

From pennlive.com

From post-gazette.com

From triblive.com

Gov. Tom Wolf, who introduced himself at his first inauguration as an unconventional governor and then unveiled an ambitious blueprint to transform Pennsylvania’s tax structure, is returning for a second term with big plans, although with perhaps a more sober view of what is possible. Wolf, a Democrat, faced huge Republican legislative majorities throughout his first term, and will again face substantial Republican majorities as he hopes to nail down second-term achievements, including on stalled first-term priorities. He is frank about his prospects for success in persuading lawmakers to increase the minimum wage, expand background checks on firearms purchases, overhaul how public schools are funded and impose a tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas production.

“I don’t know,” he said during a December interview in his Capitol offices with The Associated Press. And while lawmakers wonder whether Wolf will float another bombshell, he is stressing the importance of getting things done. “You can choose as to whether you want to focus on things where we disagree and where we are different and, I think in American politics right now, we’re doing too much of that,” Wolf said. “But here, we’ve said, ‘OK, and it might not be the biggest area in the world, but there are areas of overlap,’ and we have focused on that, and I think that’s how we’ve gotten things done.”

The mild-mannered Wolf talks now about fixing inequities in Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system, including stopping the widespread use of bail from leading to debtors’ prisons. He is pressing counties to buy new voting machines ahead of the 2020 presidential election as a bulwark against foreign interference and he wants to make voting easier by allowing same-day registration and no-excuse absentee ballots.

Read more.

From pennlive.com

On an otherwise ceremonial swearing-in day, the Pennsylvania State House passed a new set of operating rules Tuesday that carry new language on sexual harassment, criminal convictions and – in a late surprise – another tool to provide legislative oversight of the executive branch.

The changes passed 142-58 with significant bipartisan support, including 32 Democratic votes, after a little-noticed re-write effort headed up by incoming Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster County.

Cutler said the work was warranted by some problems in the 2017-18 session the the old rules didn’t effectively deal with, and his desire in taking the GOP floor leader post to re-examine some other longstanding proposals.

Read more.

The Pennsylvania General Assembly underwent a major transformation Tuesday with twenty percent of its members taking office for the first time.Forty-three new representatives took the oath in the state House of Representatives and seven new senators took the oath in the Senate in the ornate legislative chambers of the Capitol.That’s 50 freshmen out of a legislative body with 253 members. This brings a partisan lineup of 110 Republicans and 91 Democrats in the House with two vacancies and 29 Republicans and 21 Democrats in the Senate with a pending vacancy.

The breakdown among freshmen is 24 Democrats and 19 Republicans in the House and five Democrats and two Republicans in the Senate. The arrival of this class of newcomers highlighted the start of the 2019-20 legislative session on New Year’s Day; the Pennsylvania Constitution mandates a new session start on the first Tuesday of the year.

The changes boost the number of women serving as state lawmakers to a new high of roughly one-quarter of legislative representation. Rep. Anita Kulik, D-Allegheny, noted in floor remarks that she is now one of seven women House members from western Pennsylvania, when she was one of two female representatives from that region last session.

The turnover in seats reflects both retirements of veteran lawmakers and defeats of incumbents in the Nov. 6 election. Freshmen Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Allegheny, took her seat without incident as the certified election results in the 38th Senatorial District were read aloud in that chamber. Williams learned last Friday that Senate GOP leaders wouldn’t challenge her seating over state residency issues. Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said he would recommend Williams’ seating, identifying the lack of a clear definition of “residency” with the courts not fully vetting the issue. During his analysis of the matter, Scarnati said he presumed truthful the materials Williams provided, upon his request, to support her claim she met the Pennsylvania Constitution’s residency requirement for legislators.

The day meant a leave taking for Sen. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Allegheny, who is scheduled to be sworn in Thursday as a member of Congress. In one of his likely last official actions, outgoing Lt. Gov. Mike Stack gets to set a special election date in the 37th Senatorial district to replace Reschenthaler.

The only open political debate during the day broke out over consideration of the House governing rules. Members of the Fair Districts PA advocacy group came to the Capitol urging legislative action on a series of proposed changes to House Resolution 1 – the chamber’s operational rules. Several Democrats, including Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-Northampton, were prepared to introduce the rules changes. But House Republican leaders won approval by a 109-91 vote for House Resolution 4 that allowed HR1 – which those leaders indicated was a collection of rules no different from the ones under which the House operated last session, and which were the result of bipartisan agreement with Democratic leadership – to be considered without amendment.

“It’s very undemocratic,” said Samuelson about that move. “I’m asking the 43 new members that were sworn in today to vote no.” The House then voted 142-58 to approve HR1. House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, said during floor remarks that nothing prevents changes to the House rules to be considered after Tuesday.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, and Scarnati were reelected to new two-year terms in their respective posts without serious opposition. Both urged their colleagues to find ways to work together to represent the interests of a diverse state.

Observing that creating family-sustaining jobs and strengthening families are commonplace goals, Turzai said, “We may have different perspectives as to how to get to those objectives, but we will get there.”

Scarnati said passing a balanced state budget that protects taxpayers and steering business growth and investment are key goals. Republicans leaders a few weeks ago told Capitolwire improving Pennsylvania’s business climate and economy, in order to increase opportunity, would be top goals for them during the 2019-20 session. House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, said the key challenge is finding a way to balance the state budget while helping education, protecting the environment and keeping the social safety net intact.

From abc27.com

Governor Tom Wolf says Pennsylvania students should be spending less time preparing for tests and more time getting real-world experience. The Democratic governor was asked about his plans for improving education during the Rotary Club of York’s weekly lunch meeting on Wednesday. 

Wolf said he also wants to reform the report card system, and he said school administrators should go to employers for feedback.

“Why don’t we go to businesses owners and say this person graduated from X-school and has been working for you for three years. How did we do?” Wolf said.

York College president Dr. Pamela Gunter-Smith says she’s on board with hands-on learning. New project-based learning sessions allow students to work among businesses.

“We had about 18 students working with professionals who are doing the renovations on the Yorktown, and they’re actually addressing real questions that these professionals have going about this project,” Gunter-Smith said.

“We’re not preparing them for that first job, we’re preparing them for a lifetime of meaningful careers so they can continue to learn and work on a project moving forward,” she said.

Read more.

From pennlive.com

After months of debate and negotiation, Congress voted final approval Wednesday to a massive farm bill that will provide more than $400 billion for agriculture subsidies, conservation programs and food aid.

The House voted 369-47 for the legislation, which sets federal agricultural and food policy for five years, after the Senate approved it 87-13 on Tuesday. It is now headed to the desk of President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

One thing the bill doesn’t include: tighter work requirements for food stamp recipients, a provision of the House bill that was celebrated by President Donald Trump but became a major sticking point during negotiations.

The bill does increase funding for employment and training programs from $90 million to $103 million.

The original House bill failed during its first floor vote when 30 GOP members blocked it over an unrelated immigration issue. It passed a second time around, but without any support from Democrats, who insisted they wouldn’t vote for a bill with the new work requirements included.

“The version we passed in June took bold steps to reforming SNAP and moving in the direction most of us believed was supported by the American people,” Conaway said. “That was not supported broadly by the body across the building, and we made the compromise necessary to get us to this place.”