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Governor Corbett Ushers in the Holiday Season

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Governor Tom Corbett was joined by First Lady Susan Corbett and Lieutenant Governor Jim Cawley in lighting the state Capitol Christmas tree Tuesday, officially kicking off the holiday season in Harrisburg.

This year’s tree is a 22-foot Douglas Fir grown by Crystal Springs Tree Farm in Carbon County. The tree was donated by the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association, which also contributed 28 additional trees to be used in and around the state Capitol complex. After many years inside under the Capitol dome, this year’s main attraction is located outside, on the Capitol steps. Governor Corbett says he wanted to share the tree with the people of Harrisburg and those who come to the city from around the state.

While preparing to light the tree, the governor asked all Pennsylvanians to remember our soldiers serving overseas this holiday season.

 

 

Revised Plan Would Change PA’s Electoral Process

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A top Republican lawmaker in Harrisburg has revamped his plan to change the way Pennsylvania awards its electoral votes in presidential elections.  Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware/Chester) believes it should be done “proportionately,” instead of the current winner-take-all model. 

A co-sponsorship memo, circulating in the Senate, states that the new system would more accurately reflect the will of the state’s voters.

One of the key changes from last year’s bill is simply the timing.  “One of the criticisms that we received (last session) was that it was too close to the presidential election,” says Pileggi spokesman Erik Arneson, “so in an attempt to eliminate that concern – by introducing it now – clearly we couldn’t be farther away from the next presidential election than we are right now.” 

Also, last year’s bill would have divvied up the state’s 20-electoral votes based on Congressional district, while the new plan would award them based on the percentage of popular vote the candidates receive. 

Had this bill been in effect during the latest presidential election, President Obama would have received 12 of the state’s 20 electoral votes, and Arneson points out that it certainly would not have changed the course of history. 

Maine and Nebraska are the only two states that don’t currently employ a winner-take-all electoral model.

Youth Employment is Low, PA Fares Better than Most

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A new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation pegs the nation’s teen employment rate at 26%.  Director of Economic Development & Integration Initiatives Patrice Cromwell tells Radio PA we haven’t seen numbers like this since the early 1950s.  “Just in the last ten years, it’s dropped by close to 50%,” she explains. “Back in 2000, one out of two teens was able to get a job; today that’s only one out of four.” 

She says youth employment is important because the data show that early work experience pays off later in life, so work experience is critical whether a young person is in or out of school.

The new KIDS COUNT report shows teen employment rates varying among states, from a low of 18% in California to a high of 46% in North Dakota.  Pennsylvania is among the top states with a teen (16-19-years old) employment rate of 39%. 

When the report looks young adults (20-24-years-old) Pennsylvania shows 62% employment, one percentage point higher than the national average.

PA Budget Debate

Closing in on the Fiscal Cliff

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The federal government is less than a month away from driving straight off the “fiscal cliff,” but U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) believes there’s still time to avoid it.  “The great dangers of the fiscal cliff are the massive tax increases that are scheduled to go into effect on January 1st,” Toomey told reporters on a recent conference call.  “If that were to happen, it would very likely throw the economy into a recession and cost us hundreds of thousands – if not over a million – jobs.”

Toomey is in the thick of Senate discussions, and has been meeting privately with Democratic Senators in an effort to broaden support for a plan he first put forward in last year’s Super Committee.  It would call for lower income tax rates for all – with limitations on deductions, loopholes and write-offs that will raise hundreds of billions of dollars in net revenue over time. 

Inaction will lead to rate hikes on income taxes, estate taxes, dividends and capital gains.  The White House says a median-income Pennsylvania family of four (earning $80,400) could see its income taxes rise by $2,200.  A 2-percentage point payroll tax cut would also expire.      

But that’s just the tax hike side of the equation.  The fiscal cliff also includes $1.2-trillion dollars in federal spending cuts over the next ten years. 

Professor David Passmore with Penn State’s Institute for Research in Training and Development crunched the numbers to see how sequestration alone would affect the Keystone State.  “Pennsylvania’s share would be in the order of 35 – 40,000 jobs; the loss of about $6-billion in total economic output; about $3.5-billion in industry sales; and about $2.1-billion in after tax personal income,” he explains to Radio PA.  The report was first published in Pennsylvania Business Central.   

Like Toomey, Passmore believes the “fiscal cliff” is the recipe for another tough recession.

Report Sheds Light on Firefighter Recruitment Trends

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A lot has changed in the past 11-years, but roughly the same number of Pennsylvania firefighters is responding to calls in 2012 as in 2001.  “In 2001 there were 18.2… and in 2012 it was 16.8, about 17, so a change in only one person.  Statistically speaking, that’s not significant,” explains Jonathan Johnson, a senior policy analyst with the Center for Rural Pennsylvania. 

The Center for Rural Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute surveyed fire chiefs statewide in both 2001 and 2012, and they’ve been able to identify trends in recruitment and retention.  Johnson calls it a mixed bag. 

“On the whole it looks like fire companies are able to recruit members and retain members, but there are companies that are clearly struggling.” 

36% of Pennsylvania fire companies showed a net loss in members in 2012, and Johnson says the majority of them serve populations of 5,000 or less. 

Also, Pennsylvania firefighters are aging.  “How to address that is going to be a real struggle,” Johnson says.  “There’s no one size fits all kind of prescription.”  35% of Pennsylvania firefighters are now over 40-years-old. 

This new report is being delivered to policymakers in Harrisburg, and Johnson hopes it will begin a dialog on fire companies’ needs.  He tells us that a follow-up study will examine fire companies’ fundraising and budget issues.

RadioPA Roundtable

Radio PA Roundtable 11.30.12

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On this week’s Radio PA Roundtable, Matt Paul breaks down the sweeping recommendations of Pennsylvania’s Task Force on Child Protection. He’ll also be jointed by Radio PA Sports Director Rick Becker to look back at an unprecedented season of Penn State football, and learn how budget cuts are affecting the state’s nonprofit sector.

Radio PA Roundtable is a 30-minute program featuring in-depth reporting on the top news stories of the week.

Click the audio player below to hear the full broadcast:

[audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/witfaudio/radiopa/Roundtable11-30-12.mp3]
city, downtown, buildings

United Way Survey Uncovers Nonprofits’ Struggles

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Nearly 70% of the 800-nonprofit groups responding to the United Way of Pennsylvania’s budget survey report feeling the effects of state budget cuts in 2012, and some indicate the cuts have been going on for five years or more.  Nearly half of the groups also report feeling the pinch from federal budget streams.

At the same time, more than three in four of the human services agencies responding to the survey say the economic downturn has increased the demand for their services.

“Over a third of the responding organizations (35%) reported turning away individuals needing service, while another 21% revoked services from individuals due to a lack of funding,” explained United Way of Pennsylvania President Tony Ross. 

United Way of Lackawanna and Wayne Counties President Gary Drapek tells Radio PA the crisis extends beyond the human services agencies to the people they serve, and Butler County United Way Executive Director Leslie Osche is especially concerned about a group she calls the ‘invisible middle.’

“It’s the struggling young people and the struggling families that tend to get lost in the shuffle, and become somewhat invisible in this process, because they’re not necessarily those who are in nursing home care or in institutional care of some sort,” Osche explains.

Tony Ross recognizes that state policymakers may not be able to increase funding in these tough times, but he’s still urging them to stop the cuts to human services.  Another recommendation is to implement performance-based budgeting that funds the programs that work.

“In the long run we will be wasting more money because more services will be needed if we don’t start funding the preventative services to the level that we should,” Drapek says.

First Democrat Enters Gov’s Race

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The field of Democrats seeking to unseat Governor Tom Corbett may get crowded by 2014, but for today there’s only one.  John Hanger, a former Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary under Governor Ed Rendell, is touring the state to kick off his gubernatorial bid. 

Hanger wants to reverse education budget cuts and tax natural gas drillers.  “In September and October, for the first time in years, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate went above the national rate,” Hanger pointed out during a stop at the state capitol.  “That’s an extraordinary thing because of the gas boom and the gas opportunity that we have here.” 

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania has already fired back, issuing a statement that reads: “…The Corbett record of responsibility and success is a stark contrast from the broken, bloated and unsustainable state government that tax-and-spend politicians like Ed Rendell and John Hanger helped to create…” 

October’s statewide unemployment rate stood at 8.1%.  While it’s above the national rate, data from the Department of Labor & Industry also show that Pennsylvania has added 105,700 private sector jobs since Corbett took office.    

A November Quinnipiac Poll finds that PA voters are somewhat divided on the job Governor Corbett is doing: 40% approve, 38% disapprove.

Pension Issue to Heat up this Winter

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The latest prelude to legislative action on Pennsylvania’s public pension crisis came in the form of the Keystone Pension Report, a 19-page document released by the Governor’s Budget Office this week.  It details what led to the $41-billion dollar unfunded liability problem, the consequences of inaction and possible solutions. 

If you do the math, each Pennsylvania household is on the hook for $8,000 worth of the unfunded liability in the state’s two big public pension plans. 

While laying out a broad framework for fixing this mess, the Keystone Pension Report notes several key points: tax increases should be off the table, retirees should not be affected, and the accrued benefits of current employees should not be touched. 

That last point, however, leaves the door open for the exploration of changes to current employees’ future benefits, and that has the public employee unions especially concerned.  “The constitution protects that contract.  No one has the unilateral right to change that contract,” says AFSCME Council 13 Executive Director David Fillman in stressing that current workers’ benefits are sacrosanct. 

A spokesman for the Governor’s Budget Office says the report does not recommend one particular route to solvency, it simply lays out all of the options. 

Governor Tom Corbett wants to include comprehensive pension reform in next year’s budget, and Senate Republicans have already signaled their intent to prioritize the issue as well.

Cash

What Would the Fiscal Cliff Mean for PA?

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The fiscal cliff is more than just a federal issue.  The automatic spending cuts called for in federal sequestration could mean $60-million fewer federal dollars for Pennsylvania next year, and that’s just half of this so-called cliff. 

Without Congressional action, a variety of tax increases will also take effect as of January 1st, which could raise a combined $600-billion dollars in federal revenue in 2013.

Those tax increases could have serious implications for the Pennsylvania economy.  “Pennsylvania comprises about 4% of US economic activity, so if we apportion that number to Pennsylvania, a very rough order of magnitude might suggest a tax increase of $22-billion dollars,” Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) Director Matthew Knittel explained on Radio Smart Talk.  “[That’s] a very rough order of magnitude and a worst-case scenario.” 

Knittel believes Congress will take some action by the end of the year, just not full action, so he says a more realistic economic impact on PA would be in the $8 – $20-billion dollar range.” 

The payroll tax cut alone would mean $5-billion fewer dollars for PA taxpayers.  “If one assumes that roughly 70% of that would have been spent, and roughly 40% would have been spent on taxable items, that tax increase suggests a roughly $70 – $80-million dollar reduction in sales & use tax revenues,” Knittel says. 

The potential impact of the fiscal cliff was included in the IFO’s recently-released Economic & Budget Outlook, which projects lackluster growth in the Pennsylvania economy.