HARRISBURG, January 24, 2012 — The Senate Democratic Caucus has filed with the Supreme Court an application to supplement their petition and address a question posed by the Justices in yesterday’s Supreme Court argument on legislative reapportionment. The Justices specifically asked why Senate District 45 was chosen for relocation to the eastern part of the state instead of another district from the west. The Commission responded that due to population considerations, a district from Allegheny County had to be moved and that there were no senators from Allegheny County districts who were retiring.
With Senator Pippy’s announcement one day after the Supreme Court arguments, there is a less disruptive option now available to the Supreme Court. Therefore, the senators have asked the Court to send the Reapportionment Plan back to the Commission to substitute District 37 for 45 and adjust the Allegheny County districts to comply with the Pennsylvania Constitution.
Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa issued the following statement:
“Time and time again, the Chairman of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission expressed the importance of sharing with him the possibility of any caucus members’ pending retirement, so as to assist in the 2011 redistricting process. Clearly, with Senator Pippy’s announcement, it would preferable to move District 37 rather than District 45. This adjustment would allow the commission to meet its original goals and restore the integrity of the reapportionment process.”
###
[hdvideo id=21 ]
HARRISBURG, Jan. 24, 2012 — State Sen. Shirley Kitchen and fellow Senate Democratic Caucus members today strongly denounced the Corbett administration’s plan to establish asset tests to determine eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients.
[hdvideo id=22 ]
The Democrats made their comments at a morning news conference at the state Capitol.
Under the administration’s plan, any SNAP recipient under the age of 60 who has more than $2,000 in savings and assets, including cash, stocks, bonds and money in checking and savings accounts, would no longer qualify. Individuals who are over 60 or disabled who have $3,250 in savings and assets would no longer qualify.
Approximately 1.8 million Pennsylvanians rely on SNAP.
“It is appalling that the administration wants to punish those who are right at the edge of subsistence and who are trying to save a few dollars to combat future hardships,” said Kitchen (D-Phila.), who serves as the Democratic chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. “We should be encouraging low-income individuals to work their way out of poverty. Instead, the administration wants to push them back down and keep them in a perpetual cycle of poverty.”
This proposal bucks a national trend in SNAP eligibility. Today, 35 states have abolished their asset tests because of pervasive long-term unemployment. Pennsylvania at one time had asset tests but dissolved them in 2008.
In addition, Pennsylvania has a solid record on accountability, with a SNAP error rate of less than 4 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“The decision to implement an asset test makes little sense,” said Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny). “It will not save Pennsylvania taxpayers money. In fact, it will cost the state to implement and administer these tests. Many states have done away with these tests because they unfairly punish those who try to do the right thing and do very little to eliminate waste and fraud.”
Nationally, nearly 75 percent of SNAP participants are in families with children and more than a quarter of participants are in households with seniors or people with disabilities, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Nearly one-third of recipients work, according to the USDA.
“The administration’s crackdown on food stamp recipients is part of a pattern of attacks on working families who are struggling to make ends meet,” said Sen. Tina Tartaglione (D-Phila.). “The past year has been marked with an unsupportable mistrust of the working poor and an equally unsupportable blind trust of wealthy corporations. There is simply no reason to believe that Pennsylvania families are getting wealthy while collecting food stamps.”
State Sen. Anthony H. Williams has introduced legislation (Senate Bill 1387) that would prohibit the implementation of regulations that would place asset limits on SNAP recipients.
“With so many Pennsylvanians suffering from long-term unemployment, this proposal to implement an asset test is cruel and further burdens people who are trying to get back on their feet,” said Williams (D-Phila./Delaware). “The administration’s claim that there is rampant welfare fraud is simply untrue and their plans will only punish Pennsylvanians who need our help the most.”
“The governor’s actions are nothing more than a campaign of meanness meant to break the spirit of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable citizens,” said Sen. Mike Stack (D-Phila.). “First, the governor ends the adultBasic health coverage plan. Then he aligns with the natural gas drilling industry to ensure that they can extract from the Marcellus shale without paying any taxes. Then he guts the public education system and purges Medical Assistance recipients. Now even more people will suffer if an asset test is put in place on SNAP recipients. His outrageous agenda burdens far too many Pennsylvanians.”
“Too many people are out of work and too many families are struggling to survive to have the state take away the assistance they need to feed their children,” Kitchen said. “This is nothing more than a strategic effort to cut off the state’s most vulnerable citizens and it has nothing to do with ‘rooting out fraud and waste.’”
###
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 5, 2011 — Sen. Costa dances with students and staff at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children’s 125th “birthday.” celebration. Learn more at wpsbc.org.
Sen. Costa dances with students and staff at the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children’s 125th “birthday.” celebration. Learn more at www.wpsbc.org.
HARRISBURG, Dec. 20 – Democratic leaders from the state House and Senate joined together today to urge Governor Tom Corbett and leaders of the Republican-controlled legislature to end their extreme ideological crusade and to begin leading on the issues that matter to working, middle-class families.
As Pennsylvania’s economy continues to sputter, the Democratic leaders said Republicans have failed to make jobs a priority, choosing instead to focus on a right-wing agenda – from attacks on worker rights and wages to attempts to gain political advantage through gerrymandering and limiting the right to vote.
“Despite being well positioned to move forward after weathering the financial storm from the last recession, Pennsylvania continues to take on water, and that is a byproduct of the lack of direction,” said Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny. “Most importantly, we’ve seen no leadership from the Republicans on jobs.”
Both the House and Senate Democratic caucuses have proposed comprehensive job-creation and economic development plans. The Corbett Administration and the Republican legislative caucuses have offered no comprehensive proposals to boost jobs and jumpstart Pennsylvania’s economy.
[hdvideo id=20 ]
House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody noted that 500,000 Pennsylvanians still remain unemployed. And, he said, the Corbett-Republican budget – which slashed public school funding by nearly $1 billion and decimated health care programs for seniors, individuals with disabilities and other vulnerable citizens – resulted in 21,000 jobs lost, including 14,000 public school positions.
“Governor Corbett and the Republicans in charge of the legislature haven’t just done nothing on jobs; they’ve actually made our job climate worse,” said Dermody, D-Allegheny. “They have failed, at every turn, to make working, middle-class families a priority. This has been a year of failure for the Republicans who control state government in Pennsylvania – failure on jobs, failure on transportation and failure to enact a fair tax on natural gas companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The list of failures goes on and on.”
The Democratic leaders’ comments came in response to Corbett’s mid-year budget briefing, in which the governor outlined a pessimistic outlook of budget revenues for the fiscal year. But Democrats noted that revenues are actually running ahead of last year’s numbers.
“Job creation must be our priority. The governor’s mid-year budget message is more of the same. It’s a repeat of the Republican message that less is more,” said Senate Democratic Appropriations Committee Chairman Vincent J. Hughes, D-Philadelphia. “That’s the wrong approach. It’s reverse investment at a time when we should be investing more in our roads, bridges, mass transit and our workers.”
“The governor is making his case for another three-quarters-of-a-billion dollars in needlessly painful cuts to our children’s public schools and to critical health and safety programs next year,” said House Democratic Appropriations Committee Chairman Joe Markosek, D-Allegheny. “That is on top of the draconian cuts in this year’s budget. This is more than just a lack of leadership; it’s dangerous governing. It’s time to make working, middle-class families the top priority, and that starts with jobs. The question I ask Pennsylvanians is: ‘How long are you going to stand for this?’”
###
Senate Democratic Leader Offers Plan Which Adheres to Constitutional Mandate
HARRISBURG, December 12, 2011 – – Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) expressed disappointment with the final legislative redistricting plan which was passed by the Legislative Reapportionment Commission today by a 4-1 vote. An amendment introduced by Costa which proposed a more balanced plan was voted down 3-2 along party lines.
The Costa amendment represents a plan which more closely adheres to the constitutional directive to split counties, municipalities, and wards only when absolutely necessary.
[hdvideo id=19 ]
“The commission’s responsibility to keep communities whole wherever possible is one that needs to be taken seriously. Whether they testified in person or submitted their concerns to the commission in writing, people from across the state warned of the negative consequences that splitting townships and even wards could bring,” said Costa. “The number of splits in the Republican plan is a valid cause for concern. I could not in good conscience vote for this highly partisan plan. The best interests of voters are taking a backseat to political interests.”
The Costa amendment varies from the plan approved today in a number of ways:
- It reduces the number of counties split to 23. (The final Republican plan splits 28 counties.)
- Total splits are reduced from 67 to 56 in the Democratic alternative plan. For example, Northampton County is only split twice instead of four times.
- Upper Darby Township and Darby Township are kept whole. The only municipalities which are split in the Democratic plan are Philadelphia and Pittsburgh because it is absolutely necessary.
- There are no ward splits in the City of Pittsburgh.
- Senate District 45 is kept intact to represent the Mon Valley.
- Senate District 35 is made more compact. It no longer stretches from the state’s northern border to its southern border.
- At the directive of the chairman, we moved a western district to Monroe County. Senate District 47 is moved in our plan. It is also improved in its Republican performance.
“We went about this endeavor with the constitutionality and balance of this plan as the primary, motivating objective,” said Costa. “It is not fair to pursue political gain after so many constituents came forth with serious and valid concerns. I am unclear as to what extent public testimony was implemented in the final plan – if at all. Those people should be heard and their input used to create a balanced plan that respects the Pennsylvania Constitution.”
# # #
HARRISBURG, December 7, 2011 – The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has awarded a $350,000 state grant to Wilkins Township, state Sen. Jay Costa and state Rep. Paul Costa announced today.
The township will use the funds to design and construct a storm water collection system to prevent rain runoff from mixing with acid mine water, a problem that impacts several residences in the area of Highland Avenue near the municipal building.
According to the DEP, over a million Pennsylvania homes are built on top of abandoned mines. “Although mine subsidence is the most well-known issue for homeowners in Pennsylvania, acid mine drainage can also cause tremendous damage to a property,” Sen. Costa said.
Drainage flowing from or caused by surface mining, deep mining or coal refuse piles is typically highly acidic with elevated levels of dissolved metals.
“This grant will help Wilkins Township construct a collection system to address the acid mine water problem,” Rep. Costa said. “I’m pleased that the department has approved these much-needed funds for this major project.”
###
