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Dear Friend,
As a member of the
Senate Appropriations Committee, I took part in the first of
three weeks of public hearings on the proposed 2015-16 state budget.
Below are summaries of each hearing along with hearing video and video of
my discussions with the department heads who testified before our panel. This is
an important step in the process of vetting the proposed spending plan and
enacting a budget by the June 30 constitutional deadline.
If you find this e-newsletter useful, I invite you to visit my website
www.senatormensch.com for more
information about your state government. If you do not wish to receive these
e-newsletters, please click the "unsubscribe" button at the bottom of the page.
Sincerely,
Bob Mensch
Monday, March 16
Governor’s Office/Governor’s Budget Office/Executive Offices
The Senate Appropriations Committee opened its three-week series of hearings
on the Governor’s proposed 2015-16 budget with a discussion of the Governor’s
Budget Office/Executive Offices/Office of the Governor with Budget Secretary
Randy Albright. Issues discussed during the hearing included:
- Pennsylvania’s projected revenue surplus for the current fiscal year and
the Commonwealth’s current economic climate.
- The Administration’s proposed spending increase and the movement of
PSERS funding from the General Fund to a separate restricted account.
- The potential inequity of the Governor’s proposal to increase state
income and sales taxes for a reduction of property taxes at the local level.
- The impact of the Governor’s proposed tax increases on Pennsylvania’s
economy.
- Contract negotiations with the state’s labor unions and the costs of
pensions and benefits.
- The impact of the Governor’s tax increases on small businesses.
- The proposed severance tax and the impact on lease holders.
- Parallels between Governor Wolf’s proposed tax increases and those by
Governor Casey in 1991.
- Productivity and accountability in state government operations.
- Elimination of prevailing wage mandates on school districts.
- Legal issues related to imposing combined reporting by business.
- Cost containment efforts by local school districts.
- Funding for the state’s film tax credit program.
- Costs of intermediate units.
- State funding per student and wealth redistribution for education
funding.
- The Governor’s proposal to float a pension obligation bond that would be
repaid by liquor store revenues.
Hearing
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Senator Mensch questions Budget Secretary Randy Albright about
Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program funding commitments and the effect of
the Governor’s proposed Personal Income Tax increase on small business job
creators. |
Independent Fiscal Office
IFO Director Matthew Knittel briefed the committee on the economic outlook
for the coming fiscal year as well as debt levels and general revenue trends.
Committee members focused on the following topics:
- The need for conservative revenue estimates.
- How to estimate the effect of tax increases on revenue and economic
growth.
- The effective rate of PIT and Sales taxes vs. those of surrounding
states.
- Proposed changes in corporate income tax structure.
- Property tax relief and pension relief funds being used for general fund
expenses.
- The effect of elderly population growth effect on state budgets.
- Concerns about Pennsylvania’s long-term debt going forward.
- The difficulty in calculating and administering a sales tax rate of 6.6
percent.
- The need to calculate the total tax and fee burden on Marcellus Shale
development.
- Projected increase in school property taxes under the Governor’s plan,
without elimination.
- Pension plans rate of return and investment growth sectors.
- Comparing total local and state tax burden in Pennsylvania to other
states.
- The difficultly in comparing states in job growth and severance taxes.
- The need to measure effectiveness of tax credits.
- The estimated revenue that would be generated by a state personal income
tax on public pensions.
- Savings realized by school districts by eliminating prevailing wage
rates for construction projects.
- Pension management fees.
- Measuring structural deficits, Senate Bill 76 and district debt, and the
school retiree pension crisis.
- Pulling money out of economy to subsidize economic development through
borrowing.
- The danger in balancing the budget by moving expenditures to separate
funds.
Hearing
Department of General Services
Questioning during the proposed budget for the Department of General Services
focused on how to achieve cost savings, ensure best costs and maximize the use
of state resources. Specific topics included:
- Cost-savings achieved through strategic sourcing of contracts.
- How rapidly changing markets can affect requests for proposals.
- Statistics on the amount of unused office space and the cost to the
state.
- Locating state offices in downtown locations to encourage economic
development.
- The status of the sale of SCI Greensburg.
- The importance of fair and transparent purchasing.
- Giving preference to PA-owned companies when contracting for services.
- The importance of keeping options open leases for liquor stores.
Hearing
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Senator Mensch questions Acting Secretary Curt Topper about the number of
vendors taking part in bidding and preferences for Pennsylvania companies in
awarding contracts. |
Tuesday, March 17
Attorney General
Attorney General Kathleen Kane outlined her office’s activities and funding
needs. Committee members focused on the following topics:
- Human trafficking and missing children.
- An update on the Child Predator Interceptor Unit.
- An outline of drug prevention efforts include enforcement.
- The impact of the Mobile Street Crimes Unit.
- Plans for boosting the number of Medicaid fraud investigators.
- Efforts to combat Pennsylvania’s heroin epidemic.
- Defense of local gun ordinance preemption and referral to the Office of
General Counsel.
- Updated staffing levels and vacancies in the office.
- Reimbursements to counties for full-time district attorneys.
- The need to update the Older Adult Protective Services Act to target
financial fraud against older Pennsylvanians.
- The problem of drug gangs from Mexico operating in Pennsylvania.
- The need to provide documentation of outside legal counsel.
- The role of the office in defending the Administration in the case of
Right to Office director.
- Reciprocity with neighboring states regarding licenses to carry
firearms.
- Consumer complaints about misleading gas royalty payments.
- How to legally prevent drillers from passing on to landowners the
proposed Marcellus Shale tax increase.
- The legality of the governor’s death penalty moratorium.
- Gaming enforcement with the Pennsylvania State Police.
- The budget impact of requests for more staffing.
- Disbursement of the mortgage fraud settlement with Standard & Poor's.
Hearing
 |
Senator Mensch discusses the need to update the Older Adult Protective
Services Act to combat financial fraud against older Pennsylvanians, and asks
the Attorney General about the ongoing problem of drug gangs from Mexico
operating in Pennsylvania. |
Treasury Department
Representatives of the Pennsylvania Treasury Department highlighted the
importance of addressing the public employee pension crisis and the impact of
the state’s bond rating downgrade.
Other topics discussed during the hearing included:
- The potential effect of additional borrowing in Governor Wolf’s budget.
- Funding levels for the PA 529 College Savings Program.•The rate of
return on Treasury investments.
- Improvements to the Unclaimed Property program.
- Information technology upgrades.
- Interest on securities.
- The cost of outside legal services.
Hearing
Auditor General
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale repeatedly stressed the need for public
pension reform and the impact that the costs are having on Pennsylvania’s
municipalities. Other topics discussed during the hearing included:
- Personnel, union contract and IT issues.
- Board of Claims cost increases.
- The frequency of state audits for public school districts and charter
schools and the problems found during those audits.
- Previous finds of fraud, waste and abuse in the Department of Public
Welfare (now known as the Department of Human Services).
- Capital expenditures by school districts and prevailing wage.
- Costs incurred for state vehicles.
- Efforts to reform the Delaware River Port Authority.
- Active versus passive investment strategies.
- Unencumbered fund balances in state agencies.
- The need for accountability measures for Department of Community and
Economic Development programs.
Hearing
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Senator Mensch questions Auditor General Eugene DePasquale about the
health of municipal pensions and the threat of municipal bankruptcies. |
Wednesday, March 18
Judiciary
The committee discussed the budget requests of the Unified Judicial System of
Pennsylvania with a panel including Supreme Court justices Michael Eakin, Max
Baer and Correale Stevens. Topics covered included:
- Proposed level funding for the system in 2015-16.
- The results of the system’s cost-cutting efforts.
- The problem of pension contributions, medical benefits and COLAS driving
up costs.
- The success of problem-solving courts across Pennsylvania.
- Increased revenue to courts system through the collection of fines.
- Effects of reducing the number of local magistrates.
- Spending on summer interns.
- The possibility of tying the number of local judges to population
changes.
- The cost of incarceration versus house arrest and recidivism rates.
- The number of support staff in the system.
- Calculating whether fines are keeping up with court costs.
- The cost of COLAS that don’t correspond to inflation and posting
complete salary information online.
- The Judiciary’s compliance with the Right to Know Act.
- Justices paying more for health care costs and eliminating automatic
COLAs for judicial branches.
- The backlog of cases before the Judicial Conduct Board.
- Request for funds to expand court technology.
- The need for public officials to sacrifice financially during difficult
budgetary times.
- The elimination of Philadelphia Traffic Court.
- The need to promote early staff retirements to control court pension
costs.
Hearing
State Police/Homeland Security
Committee members recognized the loss of fallen State Troopers and commended
State Police for the successful Eric Frein manhunt. Acting State Police
Commissioner Col. Marcus Brown and Lt. Col. George Bivens answered questions
concerning:
- Funding for 350 additional cadets and current State Police complement.
- Increased workload from covering municipalities that dissolve local
police departments.
- The level of State Police training capabilities.
- Pension reform and excluding State Police from pension benefits
reductions.
- Costs associated with the Eric Frein manhunt and the performance of
equipment during the search.
- Performance of new State Police vehicles.
- The Acting Commissioner’s stance on local police radar.
- The number of troopers assigned to casinos and projections of future
needs.
- Overtime costs and projected retirements.
- Cost of statewide radio system and progress on implementation.
- The cost of legislative affairs personnel within State Police.
- Gaming enforcement troopers paid by casinos.
- Costs of mandatory background checks and fingerprinting.
- The possibility of using county 911 centers to dispatch state police.
- Giving municipalities the ability to pay for State Police coverage.
- Federal lawsuit on standards for female State Police applicants, and
diversity hiring efforts.
- State Police investigations under the state Clean Indoor Air Act.
- Coordinating federal and interstate efforts to battle heroin epidemic.
- The Acting Commissioner’s support for the Second Amendment.
- Legislation to combat underage drinking and binge drinking.
- The effect of the Administration’s long-term economic policy on the
ability to fund essential services such as State Police.
Hearing
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Senator Mensch discusses the need to complete the delayed statewide radio
system and what Pennsylvania can learn from other states regarding state and
local policing. |
Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs
Members questioned Pennsylvania Secretary of Drug and Alcohol Programs Gary
Tennis regarding programs and allocation of funding to combat the state’s heroin
epidemic.
Other topics of discussion included:
- Current and future personnel costs and staffing needs.
- The department’s position on the legalization of medical cannabis.
- Measures to address prescription drug abuse.
- Use of funds for drug and alcohol abuse education.
- Coordination with law enforcement to distribute overdose prevention
drugs.
- The growth in compulsive gambling disorders.
- Continuing treatment of overdose survivors.
Hearing
Thursday, March 19
Gaming Control Board
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Chairman William Ryan answered questions
regarding the health of the gaming industry and potential avenues to increase
gaming revenue.
Other topics of discussion included:
- The impact of recent Atlantic City casino closures on Pennsylvania’s
gaming industry.
- How the industry would be affected by the tax increases in the
governor’s budget proposal.
- The potential approval of new kinds of table games and online gaming.
- The effect of casinos on the horse racing industry.
- Competition from neighboring states that have legalized casino gambling.
- Measures to prevent underage and prohibited individuals from playing in
casinos.
- Recent suggestions by casino owners to enact 24-hour alcohol laws at
gaming facilities.
- State Police presence in casinos and the effect on crime.
- Saturation in the Philadelphia market.
Hearing
State System of Higher Education
Chancellor Frank Brogan and representatives of several schools in the State
System of Higher Education discussed declining enrollment and its effect on
tuition.
Other questions discussed during the hearing included:
- Programs and approaches to help non-traditional students.
- The need for additional job training and technical programs.
- Trends in the number of students requiring remedial education.
- Attracting out-of-state students and international students.
- Changes in graduation rates.
- Articulation agreements with community colleges.
- Campus safety issues.
- Tuition reimbursement and other programs for members of the military.
- Encouraging civic involvement in universities and host communities.
- Grant assistance for low- and middle-income students.
- Online education.
Hearing
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Senator Mensch asks about contract negotiations with SSHE unions in light
of skyrocketing pension costs. |
Community Colleges
Questions about state funding for community colleges from members of the
Appropriations Committee were fielded by a panel consisting of Elizabeth Bolden,
president of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges, Nick Neupauer,
chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges, and Ann Bieber,
president of Lehigh Carbon Community College. Topics discussed during the
hearing included:
- Partnerships with State System of Higher Education schools.
- Workforce development programs.
- State support as a ratio of community colleges’ total funding.
- Capital funding.
- Local sponsorships.
- Affordability and availability of training programs for EMS and
firefighters.
- The popularity of online courses.
- Dual enrollment.
- Retirement plan options for staff and faculty.
- Trends in remedial/developmental education.
- The governor’s proposal to tax textbooks and student fees.
Hearing
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Senator Mensch discusses the need to reevaluate the funding formula for
community colleges, noting that the 24th Senatorial District is home
to three community colleges and students are picking up a larger share of the
costs. |
Twitter and Facebook: I post regular
updates on legislative action, committee developments, useful state-related
information, happenings in the 24th Senatorial District and more on Twitter
@SenatorMensch and on my
Facebook page.
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Harrisburg Office
Senate Box 203024
Harrisburg, PA 17120-3024
Phone (717) 787-3110
FAX (717) 787-8004
Montgomery/Bucks County Office
404 Main Street, Suite A
Pennsburg, PA 18073
Phone (215) 541-2388
FAX (215) 541-2387
Toll Free 1-855-247-9020
Monday - Friday
9-4:30 pm Lansdale District Office
645 W. 9th Street
Lansdale, PA 19446
Phone
(215) 368-3117
FAX (215) 541-2387
Monday, Wednesday and Friday
9-4:30 pm |
