Morning Call: For newbie state lawmakers, it’s a budgetary waiting game

Allentown Morning-Call story published July 23, 2009.

By Nick Pipitone |SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL

HARRISBURG– As Pennsylvania‘s budget impasse drags on, there’s one constant in Rep. Sheryl Delozier’s life: the angry e-mails that fill her in-box daily.

Mostly, they’re from state employees — now facing pay-less paydays — demanding she ”do her job” and pass the budget so they get paid in full.

”I’m trying to do my job,” said Delozier, R-Cumberland, whose district has a large number of state workers. ”[But] there’s what, 15 people that actually negotiate the budget?”

For a freshman like Delozier, that means a lot of time waiting while legislative leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell negotiate. Rank-and-file lawmakers must wait until a budget bill is introduced ”until they even have a role,” she said.

”I knew that that was the process,” said Delozier, who worked in state government for two decades in public policy before taking office in January. ”But being one of those not sitting at the table and having the constituents assume you are is hard. Because they assume you’re sitting right there like our [legislative] leaders, going line by line.”

Delozier and undoubtedly many others within the 34-member freshmen class are frustrated by the slow pace of action and aggravated by their limited role in the budget-making process.

”We largely live on rumors, especially when [the budget is] late like it is now,” said Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, a three-term House member who moved to the Senate this year. ”You wish you had sort of a more direct line into what’s happening and more input into what’s happening.”

It can be worse for freshmen with no previous legislative experience.

Once a district judge, Sen. Rich Alloway, R-Franklin, was accustomed to the fast-paced nature of the courtroom and expected a similar ”daily back-and-forth” in the statehouse.

”That’s sort of the opposite of how it goes on up here,” Alloway said.

Slow pace or not, this freshmen class of lawmakers has come into office as the state faces a $3.3 billion deficit and the prospect of payless paydays for thousands of state workers beginning July 31.

”We’ve kind of gotten thrown into the fire, if you will,” said Rep. Frank Farry, R-Bucks.

Cuts to programs within their districts and other challenges — like Delozier’s district being laden with state workers — have provided early tests.

Alloway is faced with the closure of the Scotland School for Veterans’ Children, a venerable state-owned residential school Rendell proposed closing and selling.

Delozier, who has roughly 6,500 state workers in her district, has introduced legislation that would dedicate money for state employee salaries during future budget stalemates. But it faces long odds in the Democrat-controlled House.

Political scientist G. Terry Madonna of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster suspects these challenges won’t seriously affect re-election chances next year for the freshmen.

One exception, Madonna said, could be some freshmen Democrats from rural and western parts of the state who campaigned on no-tax pledges.

If faced with increasing the personal income tax by 16 percent, as Rendell has proposed, they would have to cross caucus leadership or renege on a campaign promise.

Typically, a broad-based tax vote is not ”lethal” for a legislator, Madonna said. ”[But] we have not had a recession this deep, we have not had this type of give-and-take in the Legislature and we have not had this type of attention given to a tax vote.”

To see the story on the Morning-Call’s web site, click here.

Capitol Ideas blog: Gun Control Begins At Home

Today’s Capitol Ideas blog-du-jour:

We Sent A Kevlar-Clad Intern Nick To A Press Conference …

… this morning, and this is the report he filed:

“Because you should never forget to leave your house without packing…

The Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus voiced strong opposition today to federal legislation that would allow gun-owners to carry concealed firearms across state lines, and they urged the state’s two Democratic United States. senators, Arlen Specter and Bob Casey Jr., to vote against it this afternoon.

“This amendment will have a strong impact on the fight and the battle that we continue to wage here in Pennsylvania for the enactment of common sense laws to control the flow of illegal hand guns,” Rep. Cherelle Parker, D-Philadelphia, said. “Our coalition is growing. We are not alone in this issue.”

Parker cited a long list of gun-control advocates, including CeaseFire PA and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, that are opposing the measure.

The legislation – to be taken up at noon in the U.S. Senate today – would allow states with “concealed carry” laws to recognize the rights of visiting gun-owners, provided they obey the laws of the state they enter. Some states already negotiate agreements with other states that have concealed carry laws for “reciprocal rights,” including Pennsylvania.

The bill was scheduled Thursday to come before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee in which Specter is the chairman. But the bill’s sponsor, a South Dakota senator, offered an amendment to a national defense spending bill to be voted on today to include the concealed firearm language.

Omnibus, anyone?

Specter said he would vote against the amendment in a statement issued on his Web site yesterday. He also “tweeted” his opposition — for the record.

“From my own experience growing up in Kansas and being District Attorney of Philadelphia, I know states need to prescribe their own rules for carrying a concealed deadly weapon,” Specter said. “This is the essence of federalism. My vote against the [amendment] will not limit the constitutional rights of hunters and gun owners.”

The PLBC, as well as the Philadelphia Delegation, urged Casey to follow suit and oppose the measure.

“We’re very confident with both our senators,” Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, said. “We’re here today to remind them and remind the public in general just to stay vigilant on this issue.”

The National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates are pushing for the bill’s passage and believe the bill would simply extend already-recognized rights across state lines. Advocates also say concealed carry laws deter criminals because they are less likely to commit a crime if they suspect a potential victim is armed.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said the measure would protect states’ rights and respect individual states’ firearms laws, as well.

But Rep. Kenyatta Johnson, D-Philadelphia, said the bill would take away states’ rights to negotiate laws with other states and would subsequently weaken federal and state gun laws.

Pennsylvania currently recognizes concealed carry rights for visiting gun-owners from seven states. Seventeen states recognize these rights for visiting Pennsylvanians. The Attorney General has the authority to negotiate agreements.

“When I think about illegal gun trafficking from state-to-state, [this bill] is another loophole for you to purchase legal guns, cross the state’s borders and get rid of those guns,” Johnson said. “And you can hide under the law and say, ‘Well, it’s concealed.’””

The blog entry in the flesh, right here.

Capitol Ideas blog: Looking elsewhere…

Here’s my latest addition to Morning-Call reporter John Micek’s blog.

Looking Elsewhere …

… we sent New Intern Nick out into the wilderness with little more than a canteen filled with Diet Red Bull and a bag of Skittles to determine how other cash-strapped states were faring this budget season.

Despite the fact that he’s now recovering from an overdose of caffeine and high fructose corn syrup, he was still able to file this report:

“Pennsylvania is close to claiming another title. We are, in fact, very close to the “Final Four.”

Joining the Steelers, Phillies and Penguins in the ranks of the state’s champions, the Legislature is in the running for the nation’s latest state budget.

We wonder what that parade would look like. (And who would pay for it?)

Of the handful of states that entered this fiscal year without a new budget, a couple came to an agreement last week, and California, of all states, is close to one. Including Pennsylvania and California (where it is not yet official) there are still five states that have yet to pass a budget as we hit the three-week mark today.

Some are closer than others.

North Carolina passed its second stopgap budget last week, but Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue and the Democratic-led Legislature have agreed in principle to raise about $1 billion in taxes to close its deficit. They now need to agree on which taxes to increase and exactly how much revenue they’re looking for.

Like us, Arizona and Connecticut are still a ways away. Unlike us, Arizona has a budget framework in place and Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell issued an executive order at the beginning of the month that ensures government can keep spending money.

The “Governator” – sent from the year 2029 to destroy California’s finances – settled on a deal with the Legislature last night after months of wrangling. The compromise still needs to run through the House and Senate, though.

“It was like a suspense movie,”Gov. Ahnuld told reporters after emerging from his office shortly before 7 p.m. and five hours of closed-door talks, according to the Associated Press.

We wish we could say we made that last part up.

See the blog in its full context here.

Capitol Ideas blog: Bottoms Up

Here’s a July 16 blog entry on Capitol Ideas.

Intern Nick Gives Us A New One.

Recession-proof or 80-proof?…

People are willing to give up a lot of things in times of economic distress. Alcohol, apparently, isn’t one of them.

While the unemployment rate has jumped dramatically over the past year and the recession drags on, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board reaped record profits from its Wine and Spirits stores.

The LCB has broken its sales records year-after-year. It’s been happening for so long, in fact, that spokesman Nick Hays cannot even recall how many years in a row it has been. The recession, clearly, has not slowed that trend.

LCB sales for the 2008-09 fiscal year topped off at a whopping $1.84 billion. That’s up from $1.77 billion in 2007-08 and $1.69 billion in 2006-07.

Put simply, that’s a lot of booze.

Tax collections from liquor sales also topped all of the other “sin” taxes.

Tax collections from liquor sales jumped more than six percent, while cigarette tax collections fell almost four percent last fiscal year, according to the Department of Revenue. Taxes, fees and interest from gambling at state casinos also fell $36.5 million from fiscal year 2007-08 to 2008-09.

But gaming money is diverted to four different funds, and a majority of the tax collections go toward property tax relief. The LCB collects sales and liquor taxes along with profits for the state’s General Fund. Last fiscal year, the agency contributed $494.5 million – the most in its 75-year history.

Another positive: while other state employees are looking at partial paychecks tomorrow and next week, LCB employees won’t. That’s because the agency is self-sustaining, Hays said, similar to the Turnpike Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission.

Hays said the agency’s record-breaking pace in sales is largely because the LCB has made the stores more customer-friendly, along with their expanded product selection and pricing.

“We think that all of those things have made it a better shopping experience and customers are responding to that,” Hays said.

And, oh yeah, people do like to sin, no matter what the economic climate.

Check out the blog on the Capitol Ideas site by clicking here.

House Dems’ latest budget slices off funding for higher education

Oh, and I almost forgot to put up by double-dyline with John Micek in the Moring-Call yesterday on the big news about the House Democrat’s countermove.

HARRISBURG – Democrats who control the state House dramatically upped the stakes in this year’s budget debate on Monday, proposing a $29.1 billion budget that effectively defunds higher education in a theatrical effort to break a nearly two-week old stalemate.

”I balanced the budget,” the plan’s architect, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans, boasted to reporters. ”I’m holding myself out as someone who wants to get this done.”

Not so, said Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, who dismissed the proposal as a ”scam on the higher education system and on our taxpayers.

”It’s another avenue and street they’re going down to get a tax increase, and it’s not going to work. They need to be truthful with the public. Be truthful and stop playing these games.”

The budget plan that Democrats sprang on unwitting Republicans during an Appropriations Committee meeting early Monday evening calls for the creation of a free-standing, $1.2 billion Higher Education Fund that would pay for some or all of the operations of the State System of Higher Education, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, Pennsylvania’s community colleges and the Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster.

Read the rest here on the Morning-Call web site.

Budget season activists rally not for more, but to keep what they have

My story in today’s Allentown Morning-Call, as promised.

It’s one of the constants of budget season: Activist groups flood the state Capitol seeking funding for favored programs and causes.

But this year is different.

Confronted with a gaping deficit and stagnating state revenues and a state budget stalemate that’s now dragging into its second week, the activists who shouted, sloganeered and lobbied in the Capitol on Tuesday weren’t looking for money — they were trying to keep what they have.

”Our message is clear,” said Sharon Ward, director of the left-leaning Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, at a rally to preserve attendant home care, long-term care and other funding for people with disabilities. ”Every single one of us has something to lose unless this budget is dealt with and settled in a way that protects our services and preserves our dignity.”

With so much on the line, dozens of protesters made their best case for restored funding.

Read the rest here at the Morning-Call’s web site.

Rally-o-rama in the state capitol

I wanted to share a few pictures from today’s wall-to-wall rally madness. Read my story about how this year’s rallies are different from those in years past in tomorrow’s Allentown Morning-Call, or just come here for the post.

State employees and AFSCME Council 13 members protest in the Capitol halls following an afternoon rally.

House Majority Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Phila., gets an earful from some AFSCME members.

A PSEA intern dressed as a grandfather clock. The message on that flyer? “Don’t turn back the clock on education funding.”

The Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) only slightly participated in a 1 p.m. rally in the East Wing rotunda, which made the wandering grandfather clock all the more funny.

The main rotunda was a circus at noon during a rally for arts funding — a guy dressed as an Indian banging on a drum, a man in tribal African garb, another man with a cowboy hat and a banjo. If you’re going to be up here, you mine as well have fun, I guess.

Capitol Ideas: Blog post on ‘faith-based budgeting’

My debut post on Allentown Morning-Call reporter John Micek’s Capitol Ideas blog.

New Intern Nick Strikes Again:

Here’s A Reminder …
… that religion can mean different things to different people.

In the Capitol Rotunda this afternoon, the folks over from the newly minted activist group Better Choices Pennsylvania had one possible answer to that age-old question: “How Would Jesus Budget?“

Apparently, He would raise your taxes.

“I’m a Baptist and we like to wear jewelry that says ‘WWJD.’ — ‘What Would Jesus Do?’” the Rev. Sharon Easterling told the lunchtime crowd, as her group rallied against cuts to school and social-service programs.

“Jesus had stern warnings to anyone who would cause a little child to stumble. I dare anyone to look me in the eye and tell me that Jesus would support cuts to education and health services that this bare-bones budget would demand.”

The Rev. Easterling also called on the state’s religious community to join the budget fray. More than 85 percent of Pennsylvanians identify themselves as people of faith, according to a 2007 Gallup poll that Easterling cited.

But not everyone agreed on Jesus’ policy style. In some folks’ eyes, He’s a small-government conservative.

“Fortunately, Jesus never got involved in politics,” said Matt Brouillette of the right-leaning Commonwealth Foundation. “In fact, He spoke out greatly against stealing from other people. So the notion that Jesus endorses tax increases, they must be reading from a different Bible than I have on my desk.”

As the late Peter Sellers used to say, it’s just a part of life’s rich pageant …

Western Pennsylvania’s ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats battle tax increase

A Tribune-Review story on 7/13/09.

Rep. Nick Kotik says his "Blue Dog" caucus should receive a majority of the credit for fighting a tax increase.

HARRISBURG — Democratic Rep. Nick Kotik of Coraopolis formed the Legislature’s “Blue Dog” caucus about a year ago, when divisive social issues resurfaced in the House.

The group of mostly Western Pennsylvania lawmakers talked informally about their socially conservative leanings and how to better assert themselves.

But it wasn’t until Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell proposed raising the personal income tax by 16 percent last month to close the state’s $3.2 billion deficit that the Blue Dogs really started to bark.

“That kind of crystallized the formation of the Blue Dogs,” Kotik said. “Some of our members said, ‘Well, let’s have a meeting,’ and we’ve had subsequent meetings. I think we’re getting the respect now that we didn’t get before.”

Kotik emphatically announced the group’s first official meeting June 16 on the House floor to rousing cheers from members, following news that afternoon of Rendell’s tax proposal.

Kotik modeled the caucus after the Blue Dogs in Congress, a powerful group of about 60 conservative Democrats.

“A lot of us aren’t prepared at this particular point and time to support any broad-based tax increase and we want to be involved in the process and we want to be proposing alternatives,” Kotik said following that first meeting.

As state budget negotiations drag on, the group of about 20 lawmakers has become a potential block of votes against an income tax hike and a dissenting voice to Democratic leadership.

“The Blue Dog caucus is just another voice in the cacophony that makes up the Democratic Party’s large tent,” said Rendell’s spokesman Chuck Ardo. ” We would hope they will look at the budget numbers in a realistic way and make their decision based on them. Every caucus in the Legislature has differences within its membership.”

Kotik said the Blue Dogs should receive a bulk of credit for fighting the income tax hike because, unlike the House GOP minority, they are putting their necks on the line with Democratic Caucus leaders.

House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, said the Blue Dogs “haven’t blocked any (income tax) yet. The end result of what we do will be articulated at the end, so there’s been no final conclusion of what that’s going to be.”

“It takes guts to stand up for your constituents and say no to the governor,” said Stephen Miskin, spokesman for House Republicans.

The Rendell administration and House leadership insist the Blue Dogs are not problematic, but Kotik said there has been “implicit” pressure on them, as well as what he perceives as disrespect. He said most of the jabs members take from fellow Democrats are good-natured, but some have been from lawmakers trying to score points with leadership and some have gone too far.

Recently, Kotik said, he stood up during caucus and told other House Democrats to respect their point of view.

“He was right on. I think he got his point across,” said Rep. Bill Kortz, D-Dravosburg, a fellow Blue Dog. “I guess there was a little bit of that in the air and he handled that. Nick’s a good leader.”

Court strategy by Veon fought

A double-bylined story veteran Tribune-Review Capitol reporter Brad Bumsted from 7/7/09.

HARRISBURG — Attorneys for the House Democratic and Republican caucuses on Monday filed documents to kill subpoenas issued to lawmakers by defendants in a legislative corruption scandal.

Lawyers for both caucuses characterized the subpoenas as a desperate attempt by former Democratic Whip Mike Veon and other defendants to intimidate lawmakers. Veon, his former aide, Brent Cott, and his former district office manager, Annamarie Peretta-Rosepink, are accused of using state resources for campaign purposes and face felony charges.

Dozens of Democratic and Republican lawmakers and staffers were subpoenaed to appear at a pretrial hearing today in Dauphin County Court.

“The defendants are grasping at straws with this barrage of subpoenas,” House Democrat attorneys wrote. “By subpoenaing Democratic members and staffers, the defendants have proven that their true intent is to create a sideshow and not to support their proffered defenses.”

Attorneys for House Republicans argued that the defense waited until Thursday to serve the subpoenas, even though the court scheduled today’s hearing in April. The action occurred just before the Fourth of July holiday weekend and left lawmakers and staffers with just one business day to respond, they said.

“Absent extraordinary circumstances, high government officials should not be compelled to testify, unless they have some personal knowledge about the issue and the party seeking the testimony makes a showing that the information cannot be obtained elsewhere,” House Republican attorneys wrote.

Read the rest here.