Faculty Offers Binding Arbitration as Talks with State System Continue

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The two sides have been talking for over two years and now the faculty union at the 14 state owned universities has made a new offer.  The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties is offering binding arbitration to the State System of Higher Education and asking for an answer by October 15th.

State system spokesman Ken Marshall says they’re reviewing the offer.  But he adds they’ve been able to achieve agreements with five of their other labor unions at the bargaining table.  He says they’re hoping they can do the same with APSCUF. Additional negotiating sessions are scheduled to cover remaining issues. Talks had resumed after the union requested a pause in negotiations last month.

But APSCUF Vice President Ken Mash, a professor at East Stroudsburg University, says the concessions the state system is seeking from faculty members go well beyond those they asked of other unions.  He says they’ve been working without a contract for fourteen months and what they’re looking for is fairness.

Mash says in order to do what’s best for the students, their families and the Commonwealth; they think it would be best to get past the hurdles they’re facing by perhaps turning to a neutral arbitrator.

Mash says the state system is looking for a lot of give backs in health care and their retiree health care and wants to increase work load for part of their bargaining unit.  He says members work side by side with AFSCME employees, and they got very modest increases and very modest concessions.  He says that’s the kind of deal they think is essentially fair during these difficult times.

Rendell: No Plans to Seek Public Office Again

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Since he left office in January 2011, former Governor Ed Rendell sightings have been rare around the state capitol.  That’s by design, as Rendell says he vowed “to be an ex-Governor” and refrain from criticizing the new administration.  But Rendell opened up in a wide-ranging speech at a Pennsylvania Press Club forum, Monday, in Harrisburg.  After breaking down the presidential race, Rendell fielded questions on everything from education to the Eagles.  Perhaps his most entertaining comments came in response to a question about his interest in running for public office again: EdRendell-Office

Rendell has been keeping busy since leaving office: publishing a new book called A Nation of Wusses, writing a sports column in the Philadelphia Daily News, and serving as co-chair of the Campaign to Fix the Debt.  Nonetheless, Rendell says he does miss public service. 

Former Gov. Ed Rendell

State Taking More Steps to Ease Voter ID Card Process

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As Commonwealth Court takes another look at the Voter ID law, directed by the state Supreme Court to review availability, officials have announced a new step to streamline the process of getting an ID before Election Day.  They say it should only require one trip to a PennDOT licensing center.

Pennsylvania Department of State spokesman Ron Ruman says registered voters will have the option of getting a voting only ID card, even if they would qualify for a secure PennDOT ID. He says there’s a lesser level of identification to get the DOS ID.  He says all the registered voter needs to do is provide a name, date of birth and Social Security number.

Ruman says if there is a problem verifying that information; the department will reconcile that issue and mail the ID to the voter.  He says if issues remain, voters should call 1-877-VOTES-PA.

Ruman says the change is in response to the court review of the law. He says the state Supreme Court called into question whether requiring people to go through the process to see if they qualified for a secure PennDOT ID before they were offered the Department of State Voter ID card was consistent with the General Assembly’s intent to provide liberal access to a voter ID card.  He says they have been making adjustments as the law is being implemented.

Ruman adds that the Department of State card is only good for voting while the PennDOT card can also be used for things like boarding a plane, cashing a check or any other reason that you’d need an ID.

Lawmakers Hear Conflicting Views of Turnpike Finances

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Members of the House and Senate transportation committees got a crash course on Pennsylvania Turnpike finances this week.  But it’s a good thing there was no pop quiz, because many of them were left with more questions than answers.  “My head is spinning. Is there a crisis or isn’t there a crisis?” asked Rep. Mike McGeehan (D-Philadelphia), minority chairman of the House Transportation Committee. 

Auditor General Jack Wagner urged the panel to repeal Act 44 of 2007.  While the tolling of Interstate 80 never came to be, the transportation funding law still calls for the Turnpike Commission to make annual payments of $450-million to PennDOT.  “The Turnpike Commission, with debt of $7-billion and growing, is clearly drowning in debt due to the burdens placed on it by Act 44.” 

Wagner says Turnpike debt has increased 181% in the five years since the law was enacted.  “This is all unacceptable because the Turnpike, quite frankly, isn’t going to survive if this continues,” Wagner testified. 

But Turnpike officials are adamant there is no financial crisis.  “We have a developed a sound, fiscally responsible approach to meeting all of our financial obligations, including the $450-million annual payments to PennDOT,” explained Turnpike Commission CEO Roger Nutt.

Wearing his hat as a member of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, PennDOT Secretary Barry Schoch explained their annual debt service is only $35-million dollars a year, compared to the $450-million dollar fund transfer to the state.  Over time, Schoch says, the revenue raised from annual toll increases will exceed the debt service, allowing the commission to pay down the debt. 

After meeting for two hours, Senate Transportation Chair John Rafferty (R-Montgomery) announced that a second hearing will need to be scheduled.  The one thing lawmakers and testifiers all seemed to agree on is that Pennsylvania must address its transportation funding crisis… with or without Act 44.

Jobs Bill Unveiled on Lawmakers’ First Day Back to Session

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The new bill would incentivize qualified companies to relocate to Pennsylvania by allowing them to keep up to 95% of the Personal Income Tax they withhold on behalf of their employees.  It’s dubbed Promoting Employment across Pennsylvania (or PEP!).    

“Employers that bring a certain number of jobs, pay good wages and provide quality benefits would be eligible for this incentive,” says state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre), the bill’s prime sponsor.  “Keep in mind, right now, we don’t have these jobs or the revenue these employers would be paying through state and local taxes.  In other words we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

At a Monday morning news conference, PEP! supporters indicated that 20-other states already have a similar program in place.  But several lawmakers on the House Finance Committee voiced their concerns at a public hearing that soon followed. 

Pennsylvania’s existing businesses were at the crux of those concerns.  “I want to see jobs created in Pennsylvania, but I don’t want to see it done at the expense of those of us who have struggled through…” says Rep. Scott Boyd (R-Lancaster). 

Minority Chair Phyllis Mundy (D-Luzerne) brought up the so-called Delaware Loophole.  “If we would close that and do some other things, perhaps we could reduce taxes on all the businesses on Pennsylvania; both the existing and luring new businesses here.” 

But Benninghoff, the Finance Committee Chairman, doesn’t believe that HB 2626 would pit existing businesses against those it would lure into the state.  “Remember, we all benefit if a new company moves into our area,” Benninghoff says, as he points out that by giving up one source of revenue, the state would be gaining many more.   

PEP! awaits action in Benninghoff’s committee.

PA School Districts

State PSSA Scores Are Lower, Officials Point to Alleged Cheating Crackdown

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The state Education Secretary says the results of the 2011-12 PSSA tests reflect actual student performance after an investigation of exams from three previous years.  Compared to the 2010-11 results, the latest Pennsylvania System of School Assessment scores declined by 1.4% in math and 1.6% in reading

These are the first tests since the state started taking a closer look at alleged cheating in some districts.   State Education Secretary Ron Tomalis says investigations continue in nine districts and charter schools and the department expects to file complaints against more than 100 educators suspected of misconduct in administering the tests.

Only 49% of the state’s public schools met Adequate Yearly Progress. Many districts fell short due to new federal regulations that require high school graduation rates to be factored in to the calculation.  Statewide, the number of students performing at or above grade level for math was 75.7%, for reading it was 71.9%, for writing it was 73.2%,   and for science it was 61.4%.

Tomalis calls the results a reset.  He says if you take out schools under investigation, achievement was flat.   The investigation has already resulted in increased test security measures, including monitors in schools that were under investigation.

The state’s largest teacher’s union  is also pointing a finger at the Corbett administration for the lower PSSA scores .  The Pennsylvania State Education Association says most educators know tampering or cheating is wrong, but it’s also wrong for the Corbett administration to use a small number of incidents to claim a statewide decline in test scores.

Spokesman Wythe Keever says the previous administration invested in public schools and students made steady gains, the Corbett administration cut nearly one billion from state funding  and standardized test scores declined.  He  says the need to restore funding to public schools is urgent.

Cash

Jack Wagner: Consolidate Municipal Pension Plans

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Jack Wagner

Auditor General Jack Wagner

Pennsylvania’s public pension crisis extends beyond the two big state employee plans.  The Keystone State is home to 3,200 different municipal pension plans, and Auditor General Jack Wagner says many of them are in fiscal distress. 

Wagner is authorized to audit about 2,600 of those plans, and his new special report finds that 36% of them are in financial distress.  They have an aggregate $10.2-billion in assets, but $17.4-billion in liabilities. 

Wagner’s top recommendation is to consolidate.  He tells Radio PA that consolidation based on class of municipality could result in 30 – 40 plans, instead of thousands.  “As a matter of fact, with those 3,200, we have 25% or approximately one-fourth of all local public pension plans in America.”

Consolidation could result in drastically reduced administrative costs and increased returns on investment, according to Wagner.  “You would have a lesser obligation of the taxpayer in terms of making commitments to those plans,” Wagner explains.  “This is all common sense.”

It’s also something that would require legislative action, and state lawmakers are already mired in a debate about what to do with the state employee pension plans, which have a combined $40-billion in unfunded liabilities.

What’s Blue and Gold, and Read All Over?

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You can help put Pennsylvania history on display, as the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is looking for nominations for its historical marker program.  Pennsylvania’s landscape is dotted with more than 2,600 of those familiar blue and gold markers, and program coordinator Karen Galle doesn’t expect to run out of qualified nominees anytime soon.  “Every year there’s something new that comes in that’s really intriguing and something that’s a little known fact but very significant,” Galle tells Radio PA.

This year’s application deadline is September 1st, and Galle says each one is judged on its own merits by a rotating panel of Pennsylvania historians.  “The main thing is that the subject has statewide and/or national historical significance, rather than local or regional.”  About 30% of the nominees make the cut on any given year.    

That subject can be a person, place, event or innovation.  For instance, the list of last year’s approved markers includes: the nation’s oldest natural sciences research institution, the birthplace of commercial ice cream in York County and several high-profile architects.    

Applicants or sponsoring organizations are responsible for the cost of making and installing the historical markers.  That could run from $1,400 – $1,875.

RadioPA Roundtable

Radio PA Roundtable 09.21.12

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On this week’s Radio PA Roundtable, Brad Christman and Matt Paul bring you the latest twists and turns in the Voter ID case. Auditor General Jack Wagner talks about municipal pensions, and how did the Starland Vocal Band get a mention in the show?

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/Roundtable09-21-12.mp3]

At Least 25% of PSU Fine Will Stay in State

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The NCAA has tapped a task force to figure out how to administer the endowment fund to be created with a record $60-million dollar fine levied against Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.  The NCAA sanctions called for that money to be used to fund programs that help to prevent child sexual abuse and treat its victims. 

The NCAA indicates that at least 25% will be reserved for Pennsylvania organizations.  It’s a good start, according to state House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody (D-Allegheny), but not good enough. 

Frank Dermody

“We have issues in Pennsylvania.  We’ve had budget cuts for programs that work with victims of child abuse and we should keep that money,” Rep. Dermody tells Radio PA.  “That money should stay in Pennsylvania to help fund those programs.” 

Penn State forwarded the NCAA the input it received regarding the endowment.  “The NCAA has determined that at least one quarter of the annual disbursements from the endowment will be reserved for Pennsylvania organizations.  However, recognizing that child sexual abuse is a national issue, the NCAA has determined that grants from the endowment will be available in other states as well,” PSU President Rodney Erickson said in a statement.   

The ten member NCAA task force includes two Pennsylvanians: Nan Crouter of Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, and Craig Hillemeier of the Penn State College of Medicine.  It will be chaired by the chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. 

While Dermody doesn’t know much about the non-Pennsylvania task force members, he believes they are highly qualified.  “So I hope they see that it’s the right thing to do to make sure that Pennsylvania’s children are taken care of.”