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Child Abuse Bills Await Governor’s Signature

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Under current law teachers are “mandated reporters” of child abuse, but state Senator Pat Vance (R-Cumberland) says only 15% of school districts provide any kind of training to help them recognize it.  Vance is the prime sponsor legislation that will require school employees, who have direct contact with children, to receive at least three hours of training in child abuse identification every five years.

“It’s always been important but since the recent publicity coming out of State College it has become even more vitally important,” says Vance, who has introduced this bill before.

The reference to “recent publicity,” of course, refers to the Jerry Sandusky trial.  Vance’s bill received unanimous House votes on June 18th (day five of testimony in the child sex abuse trial).  The Senate unanimously concurred in House amendments on June 25th (the first session day following Sandusky’s conviction on 48 charges of child sex abuse).

Jerry Sandusky is currently locked up in the Centre County Correctional Facility. He will appeal the conviction.

Jerry Sandusky is currently locked up in the Centre County Correctional Facility. He will appeal the conviction.

Also awaiting the governor’s signature is legislation that will allow expert witnesses to put sexual assault victims’ behavior into context at trial.  “We have seen how the defendant in the sexual assault case being heard in Centre County was permitted to provide an expert witness to explain the defendant’s behavior but Pennsylvania case law prohibits the prosecution from presenting expert witnesses,” Rep. Cherelle Parker (D-Philadelphia) explained in a June 21st statement.  That was also the date the Sandusky jury began its deliberations.

The changes to Pennsylvania’s child abuse statutes may not stop with these two bills.  A Task Force on Child Protection was tapped in the wake of the Sandusky grand jury to review the state’s child abuse policies and procedures.  The task force’s final report is due by November 30th.

State Capitol

Lawmakers Mull Expanded Education Tax Credit

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Potential education reforms are being debated under the capitol dome ahead of Saturday’s state budget deadline.  One of them would expand the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program with a sub-program that targets low-income families in the state’s worst performing schools.  It was characterized at Monday’s House Education Committee hearing as “EITC 2.0.”

While the existing EITC program has long enjoyed bipartisan support, critics are characterizing the proposed expansion as a school vouchers program.  “85% – 90% of the kids who would get those vouchers are already in private schools,” says minority education chairman James Roebuck (D-Philadelphia).  “It’s not a means to get kids out of so-called failing public schools… it’s a subsidy to private education.” 

But the bill’s prime sponsor says it’s irresponsible to characterize his effort as school vouchers.  “Despite the fact that the student leaves to go to another school, their state, local and federal dollars remain in that classroom – thus elevating significantly the per-pupil spend of those classrooms they are leaving,” explains state Rep. Jim Christiana (R-Beaver).  He tells the House Education Committee the scholarships would be funded by businesses that choose to participate in the tax credit program.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) opposes the bill, because they say it would siphon valuable dollars from the General Fund at a time when school districts are struggling.

While it appears the push is on to pass an expanded EITC along with the state budget, Republican chairman Paul Clymer (R-Bucks) characterized the bill as a work-in-progress.

Jerry Sandusky Guilty: Now What?

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The conviction of Jerry Sandusky on 45 of 48 counts of child sex abuse sent the former Penn State assistant football coach to jail while he awaits sentencing, which is expected in September. Meanwhile, the defense is preparing an appeal of the conviction.

Lead defense attorney Joe Amendola says there are several grounds for an appeal, but he did not seem to be surprised by the guilty verdicts handed down Friday night. To the jeers of a crowd gathered outside the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Amendola did indicate that he believed his client is innocent.

Sandusky will be housed in the Centre County lockup until he is sentenced in about three months. Given the number of counts and the seriousness of the crimes, it is expected that the sentence will put Sandusky away for the rest of his life.

RadioPA Roundtable

Radio PA Roundtable 06.22.12

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Radio PA Roundtable is a 30-minute program featuring in-depth reporting on the top news stories of the week. Professionally produced and delivered every Friday, Roundtable includes commercial breaks for local sale and quarterly reports for affiliate files.

Click the audio player below to hear the full broadcast:

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/witfaudio/radiopa/Roundtable06-22-12.mp3]

Negotiators Agree to Budget Framework, Tax Credit

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Governor Tom Corbett has repeatedly said that June 30th means something to him.  With Wednesday night’s announcement that he and top Republican lawmakers have agreed to a $27.656-billion dollar budget framework, it appears that Pennsylvania is on pace to meet a second consecutive budget deadline.

Neither Corbett nor the legislative leaders were willing to discuss the details, as rank-and-file lawmakers are still being briefed on the specifics and a few details are still being finalized.  However, $27.656-billion is the same spend number the state Senate used when it passed a budget bill in May.

One of the Senate’s top priorities at the time was the restoration of proposed 20% cuts to the State System of Higher Education and proposed 30% cuts to the three big state-related universities (Penn State, Pitt and Temple).  The planned restorations came with a promise from those universities to keep next year’s tuition increases below the Consumer Price Index.  Whether these restorations made it into the final deal has yet to be confirmed.

We do know that 40.3% of the budget is comprised of education spending and 38.9% is spent on social services.  So, any movement in the spending plan – either up or down – will likely come from those two categories.

In addition to the budget framework, negotiators have confirmed agreement on an ethane tax credit that’s designed to lure a massive new petrochemical plant to western Pennsylvania.  “We are investing I believe… in a new industrial revolution in Pennsylvania,” Governor Corbett said earlier on Wednesday.  “We are investing in the opportunity for thousands of Pennsylvanians to have a good job.”

The American Chemistry Council estimates 10,000 construction jobs, 400 direct plant jobs in 17,000 spinoff jobs in chemical and manufacturing industries if the proposed Shell Oil petrochemical plant comes to fruition in Pennsylvania.

While Corbett was joined at the capitol by a large & diverse group of tax credit supporters, critics are wary of giving taxpayer money away to big industry.  One of those critics is state Rep. Jesse White (D-Washington).  He’s already proposed an alternative that would fund the incentives through a surcharge on Pennsylvania’s natural gas wells.  “We should not be socializing costs while privatizing profits,” White said in a statement this week.

Pennsylvania Liquor Store

House Won’t Revisit Liquor Store Debate until the Fall

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With the June 30th budget deadline fast approaching, House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) has decided to hold off on further liquor store privatization debate until the fall.  That gives Turzai the summer to build consensus around a privatization plan with the help of Governor Tom Corbett.

“Nobody in Pennsylvania has a better bully pulpit than the governor,” says Turzai spokesman Steve Miskin.  “We expect he’s going to use that and we’re going to get people to the table and get this thing done.  We’re closer now than we ever have been.”

House Democrats have been critical of Turzai’s privatization plans, and Rep. Dante Santoni (D-Berks) is pleased with today’s developments.  “It just didn’t make sense… I think the Majority Leader saw the error of his ways and pulled the bill,” says Santoni, the ranking Democrat on the House Liquor Control Committee.

Santoni supports modernization of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) over privatization.  That could include everything from expanded Sunday hours, to flexible pricing and the use of coupons & rewards programs.

But Miskin stresses that the privatization plan is still very much alive.  “We’re going to work on it and we’re going to continue working on it until it’s done; until the liquor stores are in private hands.”

State Capitol Facing North Office Building

PA’s Pension Woes Not Unique

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Wisconsin is the only state with a fully-funded public pension system, according to a new report from the Pew Center on the States.  “Overall the 50-states have a $1.38-trillion dollar funding gap between what they should have set aside to pay for their retirement promises – both pensions and retiree health care – and what they actually have on hand,” explains Pew Center senior researcher David Draine.

Draine tells Radio PA the economic downturn has definitely hurt state pension plans, but the problem has also been decades in the making.  “Lawmakers in states like Pennsylvania and others failed to make the recommended contributions both in good times and bad.”

The current state budget includes $1.1-billion dollars in pension obligations.  That number is expected to nearly quadruple to $4-billion dollars by 2016, and Governor Tom Corbett is making pension reform a top post-budget priority.

“We’ve got to get pension reform done… the vast majority of the money that the school districts say they need is to go to the teachers’ pensions.  That’s where it’s going,” Corbett said at an unrelated news conference last week.

Republican leaders in the Senate appear ready to move on legislation that would move all new hires to a 401K-style defined contribution pension plan.  “It is overdue for Pennsylvania state government to move in that direction,” says spokesman Erik Arneson.  Numerous pension-related bills have been introduced in the state House as well.

A 2010 law increased employee contributions, raised the retirement age to 65 and extended the vesting requirement to ten years for all new hires.  Draine says that will slow the growth of Pennsylvania’s unfunded pension liability, but will not solve the problem.

PA Gaming

Table Games Revenue Up for May

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May was a good month for table games overall in Pennsylvania, but the numbers were helped by the newest casino.

The state Gaming Control Board is reporting a 7.4% increase in table games revenue for May.  There were 140 new tables operating compared to May of last year, and 50 of them at the newest facility, the Valley Forge Casino Resort.

Revenues were up at four of the existing casinos, but down at six others.  The Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem saw the biggest increase.

Overall, table games provided over 55.2 million dollars in gross revenue.

In a report released earlier this month, slots revenue was also up for May, by 3.4%, and those numbers too were helped by the addition of Valley Forge, which opened in late March.

Pennsylvania’s Jobless Rate Unchanged

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The jobless rate in Pennsylvania held steady last month.   Even as the nation’s unemployment rate rose a tenth to 8.2% in May, the Commonwealth’s jobless rate held at 7.4%, unchanged from April.

The state Department of Labor and Industry says it  marks the 49th consecutive month that the state’s rate has remained below the national average. The jobless rate in Pennsylvania last month was 6-tenths of a point lower than May of last year.

Resident employment was up 23 thousand for the month. Seasonally adjusted non-farm jobs were down 9,900 in May.

Leisure and Hospitality saw the biggest decline. Professional and business services jobs posted the largest increase.  The jobless rate was 6-tenths of a point lower than May of last year.

Home Gardeners Beware

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Late blight has been confirmed in four Pennsylvania counties (Blair, Franklin, Lancaster & Mifflin), and the count is likely to increase as additional samples are analyzed.  “It’s the same pathogen and disease that caused the Irish potato famine,” explains Penn State Extension plant pathologist Beth Gugino.

While late blight has only been found in commercial potato and tomato operations so far, Gugino says home gardeners should be alert for brown lesions on the leaves of their potato and tomato plants.  “When they flip the leaf over they’re going to see kind of a whitish-gray fuzzy growth, which is the pathogen growing out of the leaf.”  She tells us that fuzzy growth is how the pathogen moves between plants.

A close-up of a late blight lesion on a tomato plant.
(photo credits: Beth Gugino)

If you suspect late blight in your garden, Gugino recommends you contact your local Cooperative Extension office.  “We need to try to manage the disease as quickly as possible, because we tend to think about late blight as a community disease… and we want to take measures to manage it for the betterment of everybody.”

While some fungicides can help to prevent late blight, Gugino says there’s not much that can be done once the disease develops.  Plants showing the symptoms should be removed – or affected parts should be pruned out – and placed into a dark plastic bag.

Late blight is most commonly found in cool, wet weather.  The warm, dry conditions that many Pennsylvanians are experiencing can stop the disease from progressing, but cannot eliminate it.