Senator Dominic F. Pileggi: Senate News Brief

"We will not allow our doctors and hospitals to be held hostage while Governor Rendell tries to burden Pennsylvania's taxpayers with a massive new $1.5 billion entitlement program."

-- Senate Banking and Insurance Committee Chairman Don White (R-Indiana) noting that Senate Republicans are willing to discuss additional health care reform measures with the Rendell Administration, but oppose MCARE abatement reauthorization being used by the governor as leverage.

OPEN RECORDS REFORM, MINE SAFETY OVERHAUL ON SENATE AGENDA

Senate efforts to reform Pennsylvania's Open Records Law continue when the chamber returns to voting session Monday.

The Senate approved Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware), on November 28. Among the reforms, the bill reverses the presumption of access to records and puts the burden of proof on a government agency denying access to a record. The House of Representatives added 19 amendments to the bill before passing it, requiring further action by the Senate.

The Senate is also expected to consider the first comprehensive rewrite of Pennsylvania's mine safety laws in nearly 50 years. Senate Bill 949 was approved by the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, chaired by Sen. Mary Jo White (R-Venango), on January 15. (Please see Review for details.)

The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, chaired by Sen. Mary Jo White (R-Venango), on Jan. 15 approved the first comprehensive rewrite of Pennsylvania's mine safety laws in nearly 50 years.

The committee worked closely with prime sponsor Sen. Richard Kasunic (D-Fayette), Department of Environmental Protection officials, coal mine operators and mine union officials in preparing the bipartisan Senate Bill 949. Pennsylvania’s mine safety statute was last updated in 1961.

Senator White said: "Mining has a long, proud tradition in Pennsylvania, producing jobs for communities and energy for the nation. Enactment of this legislation will represent the culmination of a strenuous effort to make this inherently dangerous job safer."

The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh), approved an economic stimulus measure on Jan. 16.

Sponsored by Senator Browne, Senate Bill 1229, also known as the High-Tech and Manufacturing Stimulus Act, would revise the formula for Pennsylvania's Corporate Net Income Tax to one solely based on sales. It would also remove the Net Operating Loss (NOL) cap.

The measure is intended to help Pennsylvania job creators, particularly cyclical companies such as manufacturers and those in high-tech fields.

Senator Browne said: "Moving to single sales factor will ease the burden on Pennsylvania’s employers while leveling the playing field in the area of competition with companies located in other states. Improving our competitive stance is also the key component of the elimination of the NOL cap. Currently, with the cap, Pennsylvania manufacturers can be taxed at a rate much higher than a similar manufacturer would be taxed in Ohio, New York or New Jersey."

Acting to help Pennsylvania parents afford college education for their children, Senate Education Committee Chairman James Rhoades (R-Schuylkill) announced bills that will cap tuition increases at the rate of inflation in the commonwealth's state-supported colleges and universities.

Tuition increases over the past fifteen years have averaged 5.5 percent, nearly double the rate of inflation over that same period. Senate Bills 1249 and 1251 would cap annual tuition increases for the four state-related universities, the fourteen universities in the State System of Higher Education and the fourteen community colleges at the annual inflation rate. Any college that acts to increase tuition by more than the inflation rate would forfeit its state appropriations.

The General Assembly authorized appropriations totaling $1.2 billion for Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities in the 2007-08 state budget.

Senator Rhoades said: "For years, I have been encouraging our colleges to hold down their tuition increases. Now, I am not asking them. I am telling them."

Sen. Bob Regola (R-Westmoreland) is reintroducing legislation that would provide for the chemical treatment of sex offenders who commit their crime on children under 16 years of age.

Commonly known as "chemical castration," the treatment involves the use of medications to suppress one's sex drive. The legislation would require that for offenses such as rape, incest, or sexual assault, a sex offender -- who is evaluated and recommended by a psychiatrist -- undergo chemical treatment as part of the offender's sentence, if paroled.

Under Senate Bill 1235, the treatment would be discretionary for certain first offenses and mandatory for other crimes or subsequent offenses. The legislation would also set penalties, including mandatory 10-year imprisonment, for those who fail to comply with the treatment. Senator Regola introduced similar legislation during the 2005-06 Legislative Session.

In 1996, California became the first state to pass a chemical treatment law. Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin have since passed similar measures.

Senator Regola said: "Chemical treatment of sex offenders is an accepted, safe and useful tool in the effort to protect our children from sexual predators. In this regard, a number of other states currently have such laws on the books."

Continuing her efforts to address the financial impact of implementing the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy (CBTS), Sen. Pat Vance (R-Cumberland) announced plans to introduce a Senate resolution that would require a third-party study of the costs for sewage treatment facilities to execute the strategy.

Pennsylvania has been working with other states over the last two decades to implement programs to improve the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay. In 2005 the governor unveiled Pennsylvania's bay strategy. It was designed by the Department of Environmental Protection to implement multi-state agreements intended to achieve significant reductions in the pollutants that have degraded the bay by 2010. These pollutants can come from a variety of sources: agriculture, stormwater runoff, wastewater treatment plants, septic systems, forested lands and atmospheric deposition.

The resolution would direct the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to review estimates of the costs that sewage treatment facilities will incur to comply with the CBTS.

Senator Vance said: "A variety of municipalities have voiced concerns about the costs to implement the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy. The Department of Environmental Protection maintains compliance costs could be as low as $190 million. Municipalities believe it could exceed $1 billion. By having a third-party study the costs, we will have a better handle on it and be in a better position to consider requests for state financial assistance."

Senate Bill 949 would create a new Board of Coal Mine Safety to keep Pennsylvania's mine safety standards regularly updated. The board will be chaired by the DEP secretary, with three members representing mine operators and three representing mine workers.

The legislation also provides for greater responsibility for operators to ensure safety, and enables the state to establish a central database of maps of mines throughout the Commonwealth. It also addresses responses to accidents, requiring mine operators to notify DEP within 15 minutes, and updates ventilation and roof support requirements.

Sen. White said: "By putting a board in place to regularly update standards, we won't have the Legislature trying to micromanage the mining process, in which today's technology can be outdated by the time the ink on a bill dries. The governor indicated he supports this measure, and I hope it will move through the Legislature and be enacted as soon as possible."

MINE SAFETY LEGISLATION: ACCIDENT RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS

In the event of an accident at a mine, the operator shall do all of the following:

Notify DEP no later than 15 minutes of the discovery of the accident.
Obtain the approval of DEP for any plan to recover any person in the mine, to recover the coal in the mine, or to return the mine to normal operations.
Take appropriate action to prevent the destruction of evidence, which would assist in investigating the mine accident. Unless DEP grants permission, no operator shall alter an accident site until all investigations pertaining to the accident are completed. There are exceptions for rescuing an individual, preventing an imminent danger or preventing the destruction of mining equipment.
Prepare a written report on its investigation of the accident.

Adjust Text Size January 25, 2008

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January 25, 2008