This is my last story covering the State Capitol for Capitol Wire, a service for which you don’t have a subscription, so I can only give you a taste. This is part of a post-graduate internship with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association (PLCA).

HARRISBURG (June 30) Builders developing underused parts of Pennsylvania would continue to see breaks from certain state and local taxes under a bill that passed the Senate on Saturday.

Senate Bill 1412, sponsored by Sen. John Pippy, R-Allegheny, would reauthorize Pennsylvania’s Keystone Opportunity Zone program, extending the tax-free status for unoccupied zones for an additional seven years, beyond the current Dec. 31, 2008 expiration date. Municipalities must opt into the extended program by July 31, 2009.

“In KOZ, the key element of this is an opportunity zone,” Pippy said. “I’ve talked to many of my colleagues about investing in our urban and some of our rural brown field areas that need investment the most. Once you take away the tax burden, the businesses and the jobs come…”

The bill also authorizes the creation of seven new Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zones of up to 350 acres and some less than 10 acres, if they are contiguous to a current zone.

A proposal to extend and expand the program was part of Gov. Ed Rendell’s economic stimulus package, which he rolled out near his budget proposal in February.

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I continue to cover the State Capitol for Capitol Wire, a service for which you don’t have a subscription, so I can only give you a taste. This is part of a post-graduate internship with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association.

HARRISBURG (June 27) – Leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the current financial market was called “risky, volatile and unpredictable” by one professor who studied the proposal and spoke at a House Transportation Committee hearing Thursday.

“Why sell your prize asset in a buyer’s market?” Dr. Patrick J. Cusatis, an assistant professor of finance at the Harrisburg campus of the Pennsylvania State University, asked the committee.

Cusatis was one of two Penn State professors who were hired by House Democrats to review the Rendell administration’s proposal to enter a 75-year lease with a consortium comprised of the Spanish multinational Abertis Infraestructuras SA and Citi Infrastructure Investors, a subsidiary of Citibank, for $12.8 billion.

The proposal calls for investing that $12.8 billion, and using the investment returns to fund roads, highways, bridges and mass transit systems.

Cusatis called details of that plan “ridiculous.”

A representative of global financial services firm Morgan Stanley, which has been retained by the administration to broker the deal and process its budgetary impact, was conciliatory towards the researchers but countered their assessment.

“We think this is a terrific market to do this,” said Rob Collins, the head of infrastructure and executive director of Morgan Stanley’s mergers and acquisitions group. “Infrastructure is countercyclical.”

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I continue to cover the State Capitol for Capitol Wire, a service for which you don’t have a subscription, so I can only give you a taste. This is part of a post-graduate internship with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association.

HARRISBURG (June 26) – Richard Gerber, active in state Democratic politics, former chairman of the Pennsylvania Securities Commission and father of a current state legislator, died Wednesday night, several sources have confirmed. He was 73, a friend said.

“He was just a dynamic personality and possessed a strength of personality and a special kind of loyalty,” said U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa. “He would go right through a wall for you if he needed. Whatever it would take in a campaign. A truly great Democrat.”

Gerber was a longtime friend of the Casey family and ally of Casey’s father and former Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey Sr. since at least 1966 when Casey Sr. first ran for governor, Casey Jr. said.

The youngest of Gerber’s three children is state Rep. Mike Gerber, D-Montgomery, who spent Thursday dealing with his father’s passing, friends said.

Dick Gerber, a Montgomery County lawyer was chairman of the Pennsylvania Securities Commission from 2004 to his retirement in April 2006. He joined the commission, which investigates deceptive practices in connection with offers, sales, and purchases of securities, in 1992.

Gerber was initially appointed as a member of that commission by Gov. Casey, was reappointed by former Gov. Tom Ridge, and again reappointed by Gov. Ed Rendell, according to a March 2006 report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Gerber was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Norristown. It was there that he met his lifetime best friend Robert J. Butera at age 13.

“He was unique. He was loyal. He was brilliant,” said Butera, who was Republican House Minority Leader from 1973 to 1977.

Gerber was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Dickinson School of Law of what is now the Pennsylvania State University, Butera said.

Gerber is survived by his wife Penny, a longtime influential member of Democratic State Committee, also close to both Caseys and Rendell. He is also survived by two other children and five grandchildren.

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Gerber the elder is survived by his wife Penny, a longtime influential member of Democratic State Committee, also close to both Caseys and Rendell. He is also survived by two other children, the oldest Peter and middle child, daughter Courtney. Rep. Gerber has three children and daughter Courtney has at least one, Butera said.

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I continue to cover the State Capitol for Capitol Wire, a service for which you don’t have a subscription, so I can only give you a taste. This is part of a post-graduate internship with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association.

HARRISBURG (June 26) Graduation competency exam requirements for Pennsylvania public schools were roundly criticized by panel and committee members during a public hearing of the House Education Committee Wednesday.

The new graduation exit exam, supported by Gov. Ed Rendell and the State Board of Education, has come under fire from critics for depleting classroom teaching.

“We don’t know what problem the state board is trying to solve,” said Pat Halpin-Murphy, the government relations director of Pennsylvania’s chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. The real issue is a lack of reading comprehension development in the earliest grades, which wouldn’t be solved by establishing another testing obstacle for high school graduates, she said.

The tests would give accountability for the $20 billion spent on education every year, said Gerald Zahorchak, the secretary of the State Department of Education and the most vocal proponent of the proposal at yesterday’s hearing.

Zahorchak defended the proposal by telling the committee that the standards that would be mandated by the exit exam have been prioritized in the state’s elementary schools for the last six years and wouldn’t be in effect for another three under the plan.

“We have already identified what we want our kids to be good at,” said Zahorchak. “Now, you get what you expect.”

The debate has settled firmly on whether the state should first establish expectations for students – a mandatory graduation exam – or develop results – a statewide student population prepared to pass such a requirement.

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HARRISBURG (June 25) State legislators are narrowing their focus on budget negotiations as its deadline rests just five days away.

Leaders from the four caucuses broke from a final meeting on general issues this afternoon and will return at 6 P.M. to begin talks on education, said House Appropriations Committee Minority Chairman Mario Civera, R-Delaware.

The focus of this afternoon’s negotiations were still on “tightening global issues” and few details had been agreed upon yet, said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Gibson E. Armstrong, R-Lancaster.

“Everything is still on the table,” Civera said.

Negotiations have remained tethered to a debate on overall spending, said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia. Republicans want to keep state spending near the four percent rate of inflation, said Senate President Pro-tempore Joseph B. Scarnati III, R-Cameron, which is less than Democratic proposals.

“Some steps forward,” said Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow, D-Lackawanna.

The leaders will be available to meet late into the night to broker a deal that will have to be approved by the General Assembly and the Governor.

“Nobody has left the table,” Civera said. “So that’s good news.”

Image courtesy of Art Voice.

HARRISBURG (June 24) – The battle over the state surplus was a major element of Tuesday’s budget negotiations, said legislative leaders who participated in those discussions.

“The Rainy Day Fund is not to be touched,” said House Appropriations Committee Minority Chairman Mario Civera, R-Delaware. “If that’s resolved, I think we would be good, not June 30, but maybe a day or two late.”

Democrats proposed to take about $375 million of the state’s Rainy Day budgetary reserve fund and spend it. That would leave about $500 million in it after this budget, said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia. Evans and Civera spoke after Monday’s round of negotiations.

Republicans, however, steadfastly oppose that plan.

“One thing that is not acceptable is touching the Rainy Day Fund,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Gibson Armstrong, R-Lancaster.

The caucuses could agree to use a portion of the year’s surplus destined for the Rainy Day Fund, though not already part of the fund, said Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow, D-Lackawanna.

“We certainly haven’t made a backwards step,” said House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene.

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I continue to cover the State Capitol for Capitol Wire, a service for which you don’t have a subscription, so I can only give you a taste. This is part of a post-graduate internship with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association.

HARRISBURG – Bullet-proof vests would need to be company-issued for private security guards who carry firearms, according to a bill that was reported out of the House Judiciary committee Tuesday.

House Bill 2119, introduced by John P. Sabatina Jr., D-Philadelphia, would require private security companies to purchase bullet-proof vests for employees with firearms.

In October 2007, two guards from security giant Loomis were killed and another injured in a neighborhood in Sabatina’s Northeast Philadelphia district.

“I believe bullet-proof vests would have saved their lives,” Sabatina said. Those given vests would not be required by the bill to wear them.

Minority Chairman Ronald S. Marsico, R-Dauphin, suggested the economic burden the legislation would put on smaller security firms is undue, considering police departments in Pennsylvania aren’t bound by similar mandates.

“Just wait,” Sabatina said. “That could be next.”

After the bill initially failed 14-15, Kathy M. Manderino, D-Philadelphia, called for reconsideration and switched her vote to an affirmative so the measure could be reported out of committee and developed on the House floor.

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I continue to cover the State Capitol for Capitol Wire, a service for which you don’t have a subscription, so I can only give you a taste. This is part of a post-graduate internship with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association.

HARRISBURG – A bill that would impose civil penalties for certain commercial displays of human remains will stay in the House Judiciary Committee until after a public hearing can be held this summer, the committee decided Tuesday.

House Bill 2299, sponsored by Rep. Mike Fleck, R-Huntingdon, would require greater knowledge of the source of cadavers and other remains displayed in museums and places of public view.

On June 4, Fleck proposed an amendment to a 2008-09 non-preferred budget bill that would have eliminated the Carnegie Science Center’s $254,000 appropriation. Fleck was critical of the science center’s recent exhibit of human cadavers, called “Bodies: The Exhibition.” The exhibition showcases preserved human bodies dissected to display bodily systems.

Such exhibits have come under fire from some ethicists, human rights activists and religious leaders regarding the source of the cadavers used in the exhibit, with exhibitors unable to demonstrate the circumstances that led to the death of the individuals, or if people consented to their remains being used in the exhibit.

No date for the public hearing was given. The decision to table the bill until after the hearing came on a unanimous voice vote.

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I continue to cover the State Capitol for Capitol Wire, a service for which you don’t have a subscription, so I can only give you a taste.

HARRISBURG (June 23) – The majority of Pennsylvania taxicabs would be clean air cars in eight years under legislation amended and approved by the House Consumer Affairs Committee Monday.

Special Session House Bill 49, introduced by Rep. David Kessler, D-Berks, passed the committee 21-7. As amended by committee Chairman Joseph Preston, D-Allegheny, the bill calls for 80 percent of a company’s common carriers designed to carry eight passengers or less to be clean air vehicles by 2016. All taxicabs purchased 180 days after the bill’s enactment would need to be clean air cars, and $500 per purchase tax credits would be available to offset the costs.

“With the savings in gas costs alone, the switch makes perfect sense,” said Kessler. Even small cab companies would stand to benefit from the higher fuel efficiency, he said.

Seven of the 13 Republicans on the committee voted against the bill, including Minority Chairman Robert Godshall, R-Montgomery.

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I continue to cover the State Capitol for Capitol Wire, a service for which you don’t have a subscription, so I can only give you a taste.

HARRISBURG (June 19) – A proposal to bring Pennsylvania law on wine deliveries in line with a court ruling would mean “a total disruption” of the state’s liquor control system, one witness told the House Liquor Control Committee Thursday.

House Bill 2165 would make Pennsylvania law compliant with a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that forbids states from prohibiting out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to consumers if in-state wineries are able to do so.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Paul Costa, D-Allegheny, would require all limited wineries, both those operating within and outside the commonwealth, to ship wine to consumers through the state store system. From there, the product could be shipped by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board directly to homes or businesses.

Currently, out-of-state wineries must receive a license to ship products into Pennsylvania to be sold at state stores. Out-of-state wineries that produce less than 200,000 gallons annually can receive a license to ship directly to consumers, but only one has done so, California winery Kistler Vineyards, said Lynn Benka-Davies, the executive director of the House Liquor Control Committee.

Without the bill, in-state wineries benefit from being able to ship directly to consumers with nothing more than quarterly reports to the LCB.

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