Senator Costa Announces More than $2 Million in Transportation Grants

Harrisburg, PA − November 12, 2019 − Today, Senator Jay Costa, Jr. announced that $2 million in grants for transportation projects will be awarded to the 43rd senatorial district.

“We have aging infrastructure in our region and across the Commonwealth; it’s important that we at the state level recognize the challenges local government faces in funding these projects,” said Senator Costa. “We review many applications for transportation grants, and I’m excited by what I believe will come of the awards we are making today. I was proud to advocate on their behalf, and anxious to see them unfold.”

Projects awarded today include:

  • $1 million to the Oakmont Community Foundation for the Allegheny Avenue Realignment
  • $200,000 to Bridgeway Capitol for the Susquehanna Street Corridor in the Homewood neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh
  • $500,000 to the Mosites Company for the Emerson Walk in the East Side as part of the Hunt Armory project
  • $125,000 to Swissvale Borough for streetscape improvements
  • And $300,000 to Carnegie Mellon University for streetscape improvements along Forbes Corridor

“The applicants must show specific plans for using grants to help improve transportation flow,” said Representative Frank Dermody, who represents the Oakmont area. “In Oakmont, for example, one block of a busy street will be realigned with new sidewalks, lights and landscaping to improve safety both for pedestrians and for motorists.”

The funds are awarded come from the state’s Multimodal Transportation Fund, created to provide grants to encourage economic development and ensure that a safe and reliable system of transportation is available to the residents of the commonwealth.

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Hate Crime Legislation Introduced in Pa. House, Senate

Legislation will give state the tools to prevent and address hate crimes across commonwealth

HARRISBURG, October 30, 2019 – As Pennsylvanians paused to mark one year since the terror attack in Squirrel Hill, legislators in the Pennsylvania House and Senate have moved to introduce a comprehensive legislative package to address hate crimes.

The legislation, sponsored by state Reps. Dan Frankel and Ed Gainey, both D-Allegheny, state Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, and state Sen. Larry Farnese, D-Phila., will bring Pennsylvania’s hate crime laws into the modern era, extend protections to threatened communities, and give law enforcement the tools it needs to prevent and address hate crimes across the commonwealth.

“An attack on an individual or group because of who they are or who they love victimizes both the immediate target of the crime and their larger community. It’s an attack on these groups’ sense of security and their connection to the world around them,” Frankel said. “The penalties that these perpetrators suffer should reflect both crimes – those against individual victims and the broader targeted community.”

 “We can’t legislate hate; there are no laws we can write that will change what is in someone’s heart, but that doesn’t mean we can do nothing in the face of hate crimes,” Costa said. “The attack on the synagogue in Squirrel Hill, and other hate crimes around this state, have shown that there are gaps in our laws. We can do better.”

“Hate based intimidation is completely unacceptable, and our laws in Pennsylvania need to be strong and clear that hate will not be tolerated in any form or any place,” Farnese said. “People should not fear for their lives in their places of worship, because of their ethnicity, nationality, who they are and who they love, or how they chose to express their true selves. Hate cannot be excused or explained away.”

“Across our nation and in our own communities there has been an increase in the number of hate crimes,” Gainey said. “These crimes don’t just victimize one individual, but sow fear and mistrust across entire communities. We need to be able to address these actions, and to protect threatened individuals and groups. What we have done is put together a package of bills that will enable our state to react to these crimes and protect its citizens and I hope that the legislature will move quickly to adopt them.”

Costa, Farnese, Gainey, Frankel and other lawmakers were joined by several religious and community organizations at a news conference to mark the formal introduction of their legislation.

Specifically, their package of bills would:

  • Increase penalties for those convicted of a hate crime.
  • Provide law enforcement with training to identify and react to hate crimes.
  • Educate those convicted of a hate crime to help toward rehabilitation.
  • Extend protections to individuals from the LGBTQ and disabled communities.
  • Provide school and college students with a way to anonymously report hate crimes.

The attacks in Squirrel Hill and other communities have come amid a five-year upward trend in reported hate crimes, according to the FBI, although they remain vastly underreported. Meanwhile, as federal hate crime prosecutions have declined, it has fallen upon state legislators to pick up the mantle and pass policies and laws to protect citizens.

“I refuse to accept the idea that we are helpless in the face of an evil doer like the one who struck on October 27, 2018,” Frankel said. “As lawmakers, this is our work at its most basic: we protect the people of Pennsylvania.”

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Senator Costa to Introduce Legislation Reforming Campaign Finance, Improving Transparency

Harrisburg, Pa. − October 25, 2019 − Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, Jr. today circulated a memo to his colleagues in the Senate seeking cosponsors on legislation that would reform Pennsylvania’s campaign finance laws and ensure better transparency and accountability moving forward.

The legislation will be similar to bills he has introduced in every session since 2010, but with several additions. Previous iterations of the bill (introduced as SB 11) included:

  • Limiting the expenditures of a candidate, political committee, political action committee, political party committee or other person, for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election
  • Requiring disclosure of the now-unlimited campaign contributions. While corporate political contributions to candidates remain illegal, these expenditures can now be made to influence the outcome of election, per Citizen’s United. The legislation will require that these expenditures be disclosed and made public to educate the public on the financial backers of candidates
  • Prohibition on the use of campaign funds for personal use
  • Ban campaign funds to be used in the purchase of gift cards

New additions to Senator Costa’s campaign finance plan include:

  • A requirement for full disclosure of itemized credit card expenses
  • Mandating that campaign committees provide access to expense receipts with an appeal available to the Department of State for assistance in determining whether the record should be accessible

Senator Costa also introduced legislation barring foreign contributions to campaigns as SB 1068 last session. This will be reintroduced with the components of SB 11.

A summary of the legislation can be found here and will be formally introduced again this session as Senate Bill 11.

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