Harrisburg – January 25, 2012 – Senate Democrats, led by Democratic Leader Jay Costa, Appropriations Chair Vincent Hughes and others, today called on the governor to make job creation, tax fairness, education funding, shale and the restoration of funds for safety net programs budget priorities.
“We need a budget that moves Pennsylvania forward, not one that puts us in reverse,” Costa said. “We need to focus our energy on job creation, restoring education funding, providing sufficient dollars for safety net programs and improving transportation infrastructure.”
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The Democrats outlined their budget priorities at a news conference in the state Capitol Media Center.
Costa said Senate Democrats have identified nearly $1 billion in new revenues from smart policy changes, efficiencies and a responsible shale tax that can be used to pay for their agenda.
Costa said Pennsylvania has regressed under Gov. Tom Corbett, who has produced no jobs plan while unemployment has stagnated. At the same time, the governor has driven education funding back to 2006 levels and funded higher education support at a level not seen since 1995, under former Republican Gov. Tom Ridge.
“Senate Democrats produced a comprehensive jobs plan called PA Works Now but we’ve heard nothing on jobs from the governor,” Costa said. “We are ready to move on transportation if he would lead and let us know how he plans to address that crisis.”
Hughes said Senate Democrats predicted chaos in education if Corbett’s plan to slice more than $1 billion was approved by Republican lawmakers.
“Senate Democrats voted against last year’s budget plan because we thought it would produce exceptionally high local tax bills, cut education quality and imperil schools,” Hughes said. “Now we have a crisis in the Chester-Upland district and there are at least ten more districts that may soon be in a similar position.
“Insolvency will spread beyond poor schools and spill over into adjoining districts as a result of Governor Corbett’s education and fiscal policies.”
Hughes said that unemployment rose sharply after Corbett took office and it has taken one year to recede, noting that on jobs “we treaded water for a year.”
Sen. John Yudichak (D-14th), who has been the Senate lead negotiator on Marcellus Shale, said that his region in northeast Pennsylvania has been hit hard by job loss and education cuts.
“We need to make strategic investments and create jobs and we can do that by adopting a responsible shale drilling plan that generates money for rebuilding roads and other infrastructure while we protect the environment and our communities with tough regulations,” he said.
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.
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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.’”
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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.
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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?’”
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“It is unfortunate that we were not able to reach a general agreement on all aspects of this measure and we cannot support it on final passage. There is too much at stake. We can’t allow Pennsylvanians to ultimately wind up on the losing end of the battle to make sure our resources and drinking water are protected. We also need to make sure that Pennsylvanians get their fair share. Their state’s resources must be given away for a fair price. Alaska, Texas, Montana, and a slew of other states gain more from their severance fees than Pennsylvania will under this proposal. We can’t allow multi-billion dollar international corporations a free pass to the vast and valuable resources that lie beneath our commonwealth. We can’t stand for the state taking away the rights of townships and municipalities to control their own destiny when it comes to Marcellus Shale development. The Republicans have made it clear tonight that they are willing to hand over the keys to the castle.
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“Short-term benefits cannot take priority over what the majority of Pennsylvania’s men and women want and deserve – environmental protection and a fair fee from the companies poised to make billions more than they have already pocketed from the resources Pennsylvania provides. We can’t be left holding the bag and paying for the clean-up many years from now when the natural gas rigs have been taken away and the natural gas is gone.
“I am saddened by the fact that one of the most important issues we have been negotiating for more than two years could not result in an acceptable compromise.
I want to assure all, it wasn’t for lack of effort. My Democratic colleagues and I were provided the opportunity to have meaningful input and provide ideas to improve this bill. For that, we are grateful. Sen. Scarnati, his staff and our members and staff negotiated at length through many issues and provided perspectives for the other to consider. But at the end of the day, we need to make sure that this bill is correct and something that Pennsylvanians can live with now and for years to come.”
HARRISBURG, November 1, 2011 – Senator Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) hailed Senate passage of legislation which will establish guidelines regarding management of concussions and head injuries to student athletes. The unanimous vote in favor of Senate Bill 200 sends it to the governor’s desk for his approval.
“These are serious life-threatening injuries which kids are shrugging off in order to get back on the field, and they can have long-term, life-altering effects,” said Costa. “Competitive spirit is something we can all appreciate, but not when it poses a serious threat to some of our youngest and most promising athletes.”
According to the American Academy of Neurology, 40 percent of high school athletes that suffer concussions return to play too soon, and during the 2007-08 season 1 in 6 football players who suffered a concussion and lost consciousness returned in the same game.
If the bill is signed into law, a coach will be required to remove a student with symptoms of a concussion or traumatic brain injury from play. The athlete will have to be evaluated and cleared for return in writing by an appropriate medical professional. Coaches who do not comply will be penalized.
“I stood with NFL representatives and former NFL players earlier this year to speak in support of this bill. They know firsthand how those hard hits can have a serious long-term impact,” said Costa. “There is no reason for any young athlete to stay in the game if they’re experiencing signs of serious injury. Now coaches, parents, and students will be accountable and involved in making sure our children are protected.”
Additional components of Senate Bill 200:
- Requires coaches to annually complete a concussion management certification training course offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Federation of State High School Associations or another provider approved by the Dept. of Health.
- Penalties for coaches who fail to comply with the provisions of the act – 1st offense: suspension from coaching any athletic activity for the remainder of the season; 2nd offense: suspension from coaching any athletic activity for the remainder of the season and for the next season; 3rd offense: permanent suspension from coaching any athletic activity. These are the minimum penalties to be established by a school board under the legislation.
- Requires involved students and their parents/guardians to annually sign and return to the school an acknowledgement of receipt of the concussion and brain injury information prior to the student’s participation in practice or competition.
- School entities may also hold an informational meeting prior to the start of each athletic season for all ages of competitors regarding concussions and other head injuries and the importance of proper concussion management.
An estimated 3.8 million sports-related concussions occur in the United States each year. In Pennsylvania, the figure could be as high as 156,000 concussions per year.
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