State House Sound Bites

Governor asks for backup on his to-do list

2013-05-24T01:38:18Z

Gov. Corbett is asking for help pushing through the major items on his legislative agenda: liquor privatization, transportation funding, and an overhaul of the state's pension systems.

During his Thursday morning address to the capital area chamber of commerce, he banged on the podium as he issued his first call to action on the plan before the state Senate to phase out state wine and spirits stores.

The plan faces some hoops, yet - a few reluctant key Republicans and another hearing next month. But Corbett said he's fed up with hearing lawmakers still need to study the issue.

"Everybody knows that this has been on the table," said Corbett. "Everybody knows that it was on the table once I introduced the idea formally back in February. It is time to get this done."

Corbett just as forcefully pressed his case for passing a bill to raise money for roads and bridges.

"Over 30,000 buses every school day travel on the bridges and roads of Pennsylvania with 1.5 million children. Do it for them," Corbett said. "Talk to your legislators. Encourage them: 'Let's get moving and get this done and get it to the governor's desk by June 30th.'"

The governor also mentioned his pension overhaul plan, asking the crowd to be "evangelists" for his proposals. Any proselytizers will have to move fast: lawmakers are back in session less than five weeks before the June budget deadline.

Corbett says Dems are twisting his words on Latinos

2013-05-23T16:52:09Z

Photo by Mary Wilson / witf

Democrats are trying to put the governor on the defensive after comments he made in Philadelphia last week about the lack of Latinos serving on his staff.

Gov. Corbett spoke to the capital region's chamber of commerce Thursday, the morning after a torrent of e-mails and articles blasting him for what Democrats are portraying as the governor’s latest gaffe.

The crowd didn’t buy into his entire speech. A line asking business owners whether taxes are one of their biggest concerns got so little reaction Corbett tried to cajole the crowd into raising their hands.

But he got applause when he said he hoped on Election Day he would be judged for what his administration has done, “and not how sometimes they want to twist and reinterpret the words that I say,” Corbett said, “because it is our actions, not our words.”

His latest words to come under fire came last week, when Corbett told a Latino newspaper in Philadelphia he has no Latinos serving on his staff. Then he asked those in the audience to help him find one.

Democrats pounced on the comment Wednesday, distributing video of it and calling it an insult to Pennsylvanians.

The remark comes weeks after Corbett took withering criticism for saying the state’s unemployment rate was due in part to job applicants who can’t pass drug tests.

Corbett said his words have been taken out of context – something he said Thursday comes with the job.

“You kind of live in a fishbowl,” Corbett said. “Everything you say is just about recorded. Everybody parses it. Everybody takes it out – not everybody – people can take it out of context, the opponents like to take it out of context.

Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley said in a statement Wednesday the governor’s comments in Philadelphia referred to his immediate staff. Corbett has appointed three Latinos during his term, Harley noted, though one has resigned and another was never confirmed by the Senate.

A Capitol pastime, linkage becomes a fighting word

2013-05-23T02:40:55Z

Rumblings of horse trading, linking issues, and leverage have the Senate's minority leader up in arms. Democrat Jay Costa said this week he's worried the Pennsylvania House will hold transportation funding hostage.

It's not the first time Senate Democrats have voiced such a concern. But Costa was especially emphatic discussing it during a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon in Harrisburg Monday.

"What we don't agree to and strongly object to is the fact that this - what I'll call the obstinate leadership in the House - is insisting that we tie transportation funding and wine and spirit privatization," said Costa. "Folks, I gotta tell you, we believe that it's wrong, it's not appropriate, and we should not be doing it."

Later, Costa told reporters "there's no question" the House GOP is trying to link the issues.

The House GOP spokesman has said there's no effort to tie the fates of the two issues. Some House Republicans have supported putting whatever revenue the state gets from privatizing its wine and spirits system toward transportation funding, but any public indication of linkage stops there.

There has been no legislative action to suggest the issues are being held up. A transportation funding proposal hasn't yet passed the full Senate to go over to the House. A liquor privatization proposal passed by the House has been rejected by a key Republican senator who is holding hearings on the issue.

Some lawmakers and staffers suggest tying the two proposals together may be a tacit understanding more than an explicit plan. Costa said Monday it shouldn't work that way.

"I'm offended by the linkage between something that's so significant - safety and jobs - with something [that] is - what I wouldn't say is a luxury, but something I would say equates to convenience," he said.

Casey reintroduces tax credit bill for veterans

2013-05-23T02:28:41Z

Pennsylvania's Democratic U.S. senator is taking another whack at knocking down the unemployment rate among military veterans with a proposed tax credit.

Sen. Bob Casey said Wednesday the tax credit would help veterans or their spouses purchase franchises. They would be able to write off 25 percent of the franchise fee, or up to $100,000.

In a conference call with reporters, Casey likened the tax credit to the GI bill funding veterans' college education, saying it's another way to help veterans establish themselves as civilians.

"I believe that when veterans make that transition from their service we should be concerned about ways to make sure that they have economic opportunity like this bill will provide," said Casey.

Alisa Harrison, spokeswoman for the International Franchise Association, said veterans have a good track record operating franchises.

"They make great owners," she said. "They're used to following a system. They really understand processes and that's what the franchise model is all about." The International Franchise Association supported Casey's bill last time he introduced it. Neither Harrison nor Casey could point to a specific reason the bill failed in the last congress.

One veterans program director said any tax credit aimed at veterans and their families is welcome.

"We see veterans here from the full gamut - all the way up to masters degrees that are retired, senior NCOs, and officers that are having a hard time finding work opportunities," said Tim Mesevre, executive director of the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service and Education Center.

But Mesvre added facilities like his and the veterans who rely on them are facing a more immediate challenge: automatic federal spending cuts. He said the cuts have put job training and placement programs for vets at risk.

"It's definitely a tight grant cycle right now due to sequestration," said Mesevre. "So, realistically at this point, we're unclear if we're going to have Department of Labor grants come 1 July."

Agency expects few changes to Common Core standards, even with delay

2013-05-22T03:59:52Z

The governor has ordered a delay in the adoption of new high stakes standardized tests for public schools.

The new Pennsylvania Common Core standards were supposed to be implemented in July, and would require the class of 2017 to pass subject-specific tests or complete relevant projects before graduating.

Still, state Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller said the postponement isn't expected to result in any major changes to that overall plan. "Even with a short delay, we are confident that this will be in place before... students return to the classroom in the upcoming school year, so there will be no disruptions," he said.

It appears to be a governor-mandated cooling-off period. Pennsylvania Common Core has been taking heat from all sides. Recent hearings brought conservative groups to the Capitol to protest such standards saying they would undermine local control. Democrats called for a moratorium to Common Core, saying schools shouldn't be held to higher standards without getting more resources. They also took issue with the proposal to make students' graduation contingent on test performance.

The substance of the proposed standards isn't likely to change, even with those grievances.

"I think what you're going to see is that this is going to be more of a communication, more of a dialogue," said Eller. The idea of having standards - state academic standards - in Pennsylvania schools is not a novel concept."

Eller added a national pushback against the national model for Common Core educational standards has contributed to the controversy in the commonwealth, despite the fact that the national model is not being used in Pennsylvania.

"I think some of the criticism or some of the concerns or fears about the Pennsylvania Common Core and the regulatory package that is pending are hyped up, if you will, because of the national Common Core issue," said Eller.

No talons, please: falcon banding on the 15th floor

2013-05-22T03:41:35Z

Photo by Mary Wilson / witf

The Pennsylvania Game Commission Tuesday affixed special tracking bands to the legs of peregrine falcons that have hatched atop a state office building in Harrisburg.

The banding is an annual event that goes back to 2000, when the agency first began monitoring the offspring of falcons nesting on the building's 15th floor ledge with a web camera as part of an effort to help the recovery of a bird that is on the state's endangered species list.

Screeches of a 30-day-old female falcon chick filled an auditorium at the Rachel Carson Building downtown as Game Commission biologist Art McMorris began the banding process before a room of students.

"These birds are just as big as their parents," McMorris said, as he clutched the bird with both hands.

The Game Commission's efforts can only do so much to help the falcon population recover. This year, four falcons were hatched in the nest on the state office building. According to McMorris, 60 percent of the chicks that have hatched on the ledge either died or nearly died before being rescued from typical urban hazards.

"They were found on the street where they would have gotten run over, they flew into glass - things that don't happen out at cliff ledges," said McMorris.

The commission's tally of nesting falcons statewide last year was 32 pairs (the birds mate for life, and can live to be 12 to 15 years old). The state counted only four or five pairs statewide in 2000, when it began tracking falcons born in the office building nest.

The falcon program gets its funding from five percent of the revenue from fines and penalties collected by the Department of Environmental Protection.

What initially nearly wiped out the peregrine falcon was the use of toxic pesticides. The species has in recent decades been taken off the federal endangered species list. McMorris said that's due to its rebound in the western part of the country. In Pennsylvania, he said, numbers are growing, but they're still too low.

"I think there's an excellent chance that we'll be able to upgrade them from 'endangered' to 'threatened' and I think that there's a good chance that we can take them off the endangered species list entirely," he said, clarifying later the removal could happen in the next decade. "Now, that's my crystal ball - you can't hold me to that. That's my expectation, it is certainly my hope."

PA senators wait for answers from IRS

2013-05-21T01:58:58Z

Members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee will put their questions to the IRS acting commissioner Tuesday, and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey says he wants to know who first authorized extra scrutiny of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

The ranking Republican and Democrat on the committee sent a letter last week to acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller asking 41 questions.

The letter refers to an inspector general's report that found improper screening of groups began in 2010, stopped in 2011, and then began again early in 2012.

Toomey said he wants to know who authorized the IRS to single out groups that applied for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status based on the presence of conservative indicators in their titles - like "Tea Party" and "patriot."

"It goes to the heart of the question of whether the American people can trust the government that's supposed to be serving it," Toomey told reporters Monday.

He said he's not sure how many Pennsylvania-based groups that applied for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status were subjected to lengthy IRS inquiries. But the senator added he isn't interested in the issue for partisan reasons. He said he would be equally outraged if liberal organizations were on the receiving end of unfair scrutiny from the IRS.

"Their obligation is to be even-handed," Toomey said. "We trust them with way too much sensitive information for them to be abusing it this way."

Pennsylvania's Democratic Senator, Bob Casey, is also on the panel set to hear from Miller. Casey is asking federal officials to follow the recommendations of the inspector general's report on the improper targeting.

Activists put PA chief justice on notice

2013-05-21T01:39:55Z

Photo by Mary Wilson / witf

State government reform activists are getting a head start on their campaign to oust Pennsylvania’s top judge.

A report distributed by the group Rock the Capital lists 10 reasons not to keep Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille on the bench, blasting the judge for unethical behavior and incompetence in running the state’s court system.

“Yeah, I got their compilation of newspaper articles, if that’s the report you’re talking about,” said Castille in a phone interview Monday. He is running for a 10-year retention term this November. He called the analysis “slanted.”

Tim Potts, a longtime activist who wrote the report, acknowledged it is something of a layman’s handbook for reviewing the work of Castille.

“I don’t have access to Lexis and Nexis and all the rest of that,” said Potts, referring to LexisNexis, the online database of legal and public records. “What I do have is the Internet, and when I start Googling Justice Castille… that’s where I come up with 87 pages of documentation about what he’s done that I think is injurious to the state and why I think he should not be on the court.”

“The ‘No’ in November”

The Rock the Capital report criticizes Castille for writing the court’s majority decision allowing judges to keep a pay raise that had been repealed by the state lawmakers. It faults Castille for not investigating scandals-in-the-making sooner, like corruption in Philadelphia Traffic Court and in Luzerne County, where two judges were sent to jail for taking kickbacks to send children to juvenile detention facilities.

Castille said such accusations ignore constraints of the Supreme Court, which is not responsible for investigating alleged criminal behavior. He said once he found out about improper behavior, he acted to remedy it.

“They’re just looking at the headlines saying that I’m responsible for every negative thing that happened in the court over the last six years that I’ve been chief justice, which is an impossibility,” said Castille. “There [are] 15,000 court employees.”

The Rock the Capital report also holds Castille responsible for not establishing rules to prohibit nepotism in the state courts. Activists say family favors in the system have contributed to corruption.

Castille responded by noting he has ordered a study of the rules of judicial conduct, in which nepotism is part of the focus. He said an early draft of the study’s report has been returned to him, but it’s anybody’s guess when recommendations might be circulated and adopted.

Eric Epstein, founder of the group that commissioned the anti-Castille report (Epstein said it cost him $636), said the judge shouldn’t even be running for retention. Castille is approaching the state’s mandatory judicial retirement age of 70.

“I think the game changer here is the fact that he’s 69 and running for an office that he can only serve 10 percent of his term for,” said Epstein. “You know, when you talk to people and you get past the other issues, they’re having a hard time grasping why somebody wants to run for an office in which they can only serve one-tenth of it.”

Efforts are underway in the Legislature to increase the retirement age or erase it altogether, and cases challenging it are pending before the high court.

A challenge and a shrug

Potts extended an invitation to Castille to participate in a public debate before the chief justice’s retention election.

“I prefer to call it a discussion, because I don’t want it to be adversarial as I want it to be educational,” Potts said. “Now, it’s bound to be adversarial when we talk about whether he should be retained.”

“I’m game for anything,” said Castille. “A debate is nothing, but I’m not going to debate headlines with the guy. I mean, what’s he going to say?”

Castille suggested he might send Potts headlines of follow-up articles, presumably portraying the courts in a better light. “That would be a debate, right there,” Castille said.

The chief justice pointed to his administrative bone fides by touting his efforts to keep the courts open despite tight budgets. “We have kept every courtroom open in the state of Pennsylvania for the last four years in the toughest economic times that any of us have seen, unless you were there for the Great Depression,” Castille said.

It’s not a winning argument for Epstein.

“Just because you did good doesn’t mean you get to do bad,” Epstein said. “You should be doing good all the time.”

Open Records chief calls charter schools scofflaws

2013-05-17T20:14:53Z

The head of the state's Office of Open records is pointing a finger at public charter schools for being the "cancer" of the state's Right-to-Know law.

The testimony comes as lawmakers are in the midst of an effort to tweak the state's five-year-old law, which lets citizens request government records starting with the presumption that all such documents are public, putting the burden of proof on agencies, not citizens.

Such revisions might address charter schools, suggested Office of Open Records Executive Director Terry Mutchler. She called charter schools, which are public, the most consistent violators of the law.

"Hands down - and if I could think of stronger language than I'm going to use here, I would use it," Mutchler said.

"I don't know what the solution is. We try to meet with them," Mutchler told a Senate committee on Monday during a hearing on proposed changes to the Right-to-Know law. "But as you look at this, it's certainly something to consider because they just play by their own rules."

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools said his group hasn't heard about such a problem but will work to address it.

"We look forward to working with the Office of Open records to resolve this situation," the group said in a written statement.

David Strassburger, a lawyer who represents media groups requesting public records, told lawmakers there's a potentially simple fix here - levy fines for those agencies and government entities that flout the law.

"[I]mpose a penalty of up to $500 per day for violations of [Office of Open Records] decisions, not just court orders," Strassburger said.

Gov. George Leader celebrated before burial

2013-05-16T20:25:48Z

Photo by witf-TV

Family, friends, and fixtures of state politics are remembering Governor George Leader for being a tireless tinkerer - a man inspired by new ideas, and always ready to go on to the next thing.

Leader died at age 95 last week. At a memorial service Thursday his children recounted stories of their father and poked fun at his memory, at turns resisting and then contributing to a growing legend about one of the state's most beloved governors.

Youngest son David perhaps got the most jokes into his remembrance, noting how his father hatched idea after idea, calling all of them brilliant, if only out of habit. Sure, he launched a successful nursing company in the 1960s, David said:

"But he also launched in the '60s a miniature Sardinia donkey farm, and then explored turning our family farm into a wild animal park and later a KOA campground," the youngest son of the late governor said. "Those didn't do so well."

"Dad's sense of urgency was off the chart," David continued. "He was the ultimate 'ready, aim, fire' manager. We all made fun of him for it, but the truth was he got more done in a day than most of us got done in a week."

Leader's daughter, Jane Leader Janeczek read a letter her father wrote as a college student, urging his own father, at a difficult time, to buck up and count his blessings.

"'If you don't feel thankful every morning when you get up, thankful every evening as the sun goes down, thankful that you're able to partake of those great free goods available to everyone alive, then you'd better take yourself in hand and revamp your attitude,'" said Janeczek, reading from the letter. "This is a 21-year-old speaking to his father," she said.

Leader's eldest son, Mike, (formally George Michael Leader III), remembered his father's resilience after a failed bid for U.S. Senate.

"He was a poultry farmer without a poultry farm, and he was a politician whose promising political career had come crashing down, and if he felt sorry for himself, I didn't observe it," said Mike. His father set about throwing himself right into his next career in the health care field, he said.

"It probably was more satisfying for him than six years in the Senate might have been," said Mike. "I'm not sure the Senate moved fast enough for him, to tell you the truth."

Leader is known for revamping the state's mental health system, clearing political patronage jobs from the upper echelons of state agencies, and making cabinet appointments that broke new ground in Pennsylvania - the state's first black department secretary; the selection of the man responsible for the state's modern parks system. Perhaps Leader's most widely unpopular move was enacting a state sales tax to fill the commonwealth's deficit.

Gov. Corbett and former governors - Ed Rendell, Tom Ridge, Dick Thornburgh, and Mark Schweiker, as well as former lieutenant governors Mark Singel and William Scranton - attended the service at Derry Presbyterian Church in Hershey, Dauphin County.

"There’s probably no one who’s had more of an impact in the different facets of the life of the state than Gov. Leader," said Rendell.

Ridge said he saw Leader as a fellow traveler -- in the sense that, though a Democrat, Leader also appreciated what Ridge called the art of governing.

"And part of the art to governing isn't necessarily giving up your principle, but finding common ground and moving the common interest forward," said Ridge. "He got it."

Family and friends will hold a private burial.

Janeczek, Leader's daughter, mentioned her father's most recent participation in the Corbett administration's effort to overhaul the state prison system.

"It was so great to see him energized and handling press conferences and Patriot-News interviews like the pro that he was," she said. "I felt like I was getting a little glimpse of the man who had been the governor when I was just a toddler."

This post has been updated to include the attendance of former Gov. Mark Schweiker and former Lt. Govs. Mark Singel and William Scranton.

Another arrow leaves the quiver for Senate minority

2013-05-16T02:47:43Z

Photo by Mary Wilson / witf

State Senate Democrats are trying to compel the state to participate in a Medicaid expansion by using what's called a discharge resolution.

Think arcane, complicated, procedural move. This is it.

Senate staffers on both sides of the aisle are at a loss to remember the last time this kind of maneuver was successful. It doesn't preclude the majority party from sidestepping a vote on the measure in question.

But that's not stopping Sen. Vincent Hughes.

The Philadelphia Democrat is by far the most outspoken member of his caucus on the issue of Medicaid expansion. He proposed a bill months ago that would force the state to allow hundreds of thousands more low-income Pennsylvanians to enroll in the program by widening eligibility standards. That bill has sat in committee since late March.

Hughes says he's tired of waiting for action. The discharge resolution would, at the very least, prompt the committee to act on the proposal in some fashion. But, the way the resolution works, by late June, Hughes' bill could be sent to the full Senate for consideration.

"If folks are still hesitant by June 24 - 'Well I don't know, I'm not sure,' - then there will have to be some kind of legislative action on this issue," said Hughes. "A vote to table is a vote against the issue. Either you're for it or agin' it."

The Medicaid expansion issue has been handled gingerly by Senate Republicans. Many of them are publicly deferring to the governor's office, which is still trying to nail down the costs of potentially bringing hundreds of thousands more Pennsylvanians into Medicaid.

Some say Hughes' move here is less about forcing a vote, and more about having a reason to talk about the issue.

"[T]he majority party can use any number of procedural moves to handle it, such as referring the bill to a different committee," said Senate GOP spokesman Erik Arneson.

Sen. Pat Vance (R-Cumberland), chairwoman of the relevant committee - the one Hughes accuses of inaction - said she's never been asked to schedule the Medicaid expansion proposal for a vote. She was surprised to hear about the discharge resolution.

"Anyone who wants a bill moved in committee usually says to the chairman, 'Are you planning to move the bill? We request that you move the bill,'" said Vance. "But that's just a minor technicality."

Hughes said if his bill is tabled or otherwise ignored - by committee or the full Senate - he'll take it as a vote against Medicaid expansion.

The Corbett administration hasn't given a final answer on the issue, but suggests Medicaid expansion would be too costly for the commonwealth and couldn't realistically go into effect until 2015.

Turnover at the top of the Dept. of Education

2013-05-15T18:53:10Z

Photo by Cumberland Valley School District

The nominee to replace Education Secretary Ron Tomalis was plucked from just across the river: William Harner, superintendent of the suburban Cumberland Valley School District near Harrisburg, will assume the top slot at the Department of Education in June, pending confirmation by the state Senate.

Gov. Corbett announced the change Wednesday. Secretary Ron Tomalis will step down at the end of the month.

Harner has spent the last several years as a school administrator up and down the eastern seaboard. Before he came to work in Cumberland County, he was an administrator in a special school district created by the state in New Orleans meant to deal with under-performing schools. Before that, he served briefly as a deputy superintendent for Philadelphia Schools. In 2008, he told an audience in Cumberland County it was "an experience I wouldn't wish on anybody," as the Patriot-News reported.

His career also includes stints running South Carolina's largest school district as well as running individual schools in South Carolina and Georgia. Harner began working as a school administrator after retiring from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel.

Jim Buckheit, head of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, said he's glad to see the governor's nominee for education secretary has had hands-on experience running schools and school districts. Tomalis, the outgoing secretary, had a background in education policy, but not as a school administrator.

"I think it's important to have somebody who has served in the trenches so to speak, and can relate, and actually has firsthand experience about how schools work and what the needs of children are," said Beckheit.

Sources said Wednesday that a search for "in the trenches" experience is exactly what the administration was seeking - and others call the turnover an attempt to change the way the governor's policies are received by educators -- in part, to better position the governor for re-election.

Tomalis is known in Capitol circles as a policy wonk. Lawmakers have credited him with being accessible and able to explain the governor's policies. But others are quick to note Tomalis is no salesman. And some point out he's not one to cultivate relationships with educators.

"He would come in and make his speeches and leave," said one source.

On top of a personality some have called "gruff" is the fact that Tomalis has been at the forefront of a number of unpopular moves.

Schools have seen less funding from the state - due, as the administration insists, to a loss of federal stimulus funds.

Teachers have also bristled at the department's handling of the teacher cheating scandal on statewide tests, in which some say the governor's office was all too quick to demonize more teachers than were actually involved. Others say selecting Harner represents a shift by the governor's office from focusing on the negative aspects of the state's public schools to speaking to the teachers, schools, and students square in the middle of the bell curve: the ones performing well.

Tomalis will take a newly-created position as an assistant to the governor on higher education - a post some suggest is meant to be a temporary soft landing.

The Department of Education secretary is statutorily able to make $149,804 a year, but members of Corbett’s cabinet have been denying the cost of living salary increases they’re granted by law. Tomalis has been collecting a $139,931 salary.

According to a spokesman for the state Office of Administration, Harner’s salary will be the same.

This post was updated with salary information at 4:07 p.m.

Second of trio of liquor hearings: one big wish list

2013-05-14T23:42:15Z

Photo by Mary Wilson / witf

The chairman of a key Senate panel all but called a time of death for liquor privatization - at least, the effort to pass a measure before July.

After the second Senate Law and Justice Committee hearing on liquor, Chairman Sen. Chuck McIlhinney (R-Bucks) said liquor privatization isn't really a budget issue, and he's not going to try to draft a measure and pass it out of committee just because the governor says so.

"At this point, I'm still going to try to put it together in June, but if it doesn't, nothing would stop us from coming up with it and bringing it up to a vote in the fall. We would have that session to do it as well," said McIlhinney. He has insisted he supports privatization, and phasing out state stores, but he's faced criticism that he has eluded attempts to have him outline his position in detail.

McIlhinney heads the panel that would send a liquor privatization bill to the full Senate. He has said he's trying to find consensus, but during Tuesday's hearing, he noted the issue has metastasized from simple privatization to all-out "alcohol reform." That point was underscored Tuesday: among those testifying before the panel were grocery store executives and groups representing beer distributors, taverns, and wineries. Nearly every testifier had suggestions for how changes to the state's liquor laws should protect their corners of the industry, or make their niche grow.

As was the case before the first hearing, some who had largely supportive things to say about the House's privatization plan said they were not allowed to testify, except in writing. Two beer distributors, not in agreement with the association representing roughly a third of their compatriots, lingered outside the hearing room offering interviews.

Inside the hearing room, some testimony teetered on the brink of absurdity - like when Sky Cooper, president of Jacquin's Liquor Company, shared his dream for opening a mammoth wine and spirits store in Philadelphia where his distillery is based.

"It would be an attraction. People would come for the Liberty Bell, they'd go to the convention, they would visit the world's biggest wine and spirits shop. MADD mothers could have a booth there about, you know -- alcohol, temperance," said Cooper. Chortles came from the gallery. McIlhinney turn on his mic. "Wait a second!" said Cooper, apparently not finished.

One more hearing remains, scheduled for early June. McIlhinney said it will focus on wine and liquor suppliers and the logistics of privatization. He's defending the hearing process, and taking shots at non-profit groups that are lobbying lawmakers on the liquor issue.

"I can't write a bill that says we shouldn't philosophically be in the liquor business," said McIlhinney. "Doesn't work."

Critics say McIlhinney is dragging his feet. He said he won't started drafting a proposal until after the June hearing.

He was asked if he's always been a procrastinator.

"I'm deliberative," he said with a grin.

House committee OKs raising judges' mandatory retirement age

2013-05-14T23:40:30Z

A state House panel has approved a measure to give state judges an extra five years on the bench.

The plan to raise state judges' mandatory retirement age to 75 still has a long way to go. The age limit is written into the state Constitution - and the amendment process would take four or five years.

Meanwhile, a number of challenges to the age limit are pending in federal and state courts.

Rep. Brian Ellis (R-Butler) noted the reaction from the state Supreme Court, which heard arguments last week on striking down the retirement age.

"We haven't heard from what they thought, and I guess the word is they don't think they should be deciding for themselves," said Ellis. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases last week, and some justices reportedly had doubts they should change the constitutionally-prescribed mandate themselves. "I'm just wondering," Ellis continued, " is this something we should be doing at this point?"

He added he's not sold on allowing judges to stay on the state's payroll longer - think of the potential pension costs, he said.

Supporters of the House measure to give judges until 75 before they must retire say it strikes the right balance - updating a decades-old rule without stymying the careers of younger aspiring judges. A Senate proposal would abolish the mandatory retirement rule altogether.

"The mandatory retirement age was set in 1968," said Rep. Kate Harper (R-Montgomery), the House bill's sponsor. "Life expectancies have greatly increased since that time."

She also noted passing the measure out of committee would be the first of many steps needed before changing the age limit - something that would ultimately require a voter referendum.

"This is the first step in a very, very long process to ask the voters if they think judges should be forced to retire at 70 or whether they can stay an extra five years at 75," said Harper.

In open records debate, a case for being less business-friendly

2013-05-14T03:42:56Z

The same senator who sponsored legislation creating the five-year-old Office of Open Records has drafted revisions to the state's Right-to-Know law - the "most critical" proposed change being one that would keep commercial users from exploiting the law on the cheap.

Local government officials have said for years the passage of the Right-to-Know law has resulted in a tidal wave of records requests.

Some are legitimate. Some are nuisances - people who file request after request, earning them the ire of state and local officials who call them everything from "crazy" to "ridiculously crazy."

But many, many record requests are coming from people out to make a buck - and the burden is falling especially hard on local governments.

"Township officials are currently serving as quasi workforce for some of the businesses by tracking their competitors' activity and also providing information... concerning our residents that currently comes at no additional benefit to the townships," said Robin Getz, the North Cornwall Township manager in Lebanon County. She testified before a Senate committee Monday about proposed changes to the state's Right-to-Know law.

One of the suggested tweaks would require businesses to pay fees for record requests. Such a change has the full favor of Office of Open Records Executive Director Terry Mutchler, who said government agencies should be able to distinguish private citizens, researchers, and the press from commercial entities.

"We see it with folks that come in and get tax records and sell them. We see it with folks that come in who have businesses and the want to know everybody that's asked for building permits to build pools because they happen to sell pool liners."

Mutchler added some people request information about dog licenses. "It goes on and on," she said.

She admits requesters may be able to duck the fees by filing as private citizens, but adds there's "no perfect fix." The proposal would leave setting the fees up to agencies receiving the record requests.

Mutchler said her praise for the proposed changes to the Right-to-Know law far outweighed her concerns. But a big one, she said, is the plan to allow agencies to ask for court protection when they deem record requests to be "unduly burdensome."

"I can tell you in the strongest possible terms, you're going to have every level of government saying that every request that comes to them is unduly burdensome under this language," said Mutchler. "You're going to bypass what I believe is a very effective office in terms of making these determinations."

She said she's also skeptical of language that would keep her office from making public comments on pending record requests and related proceedings.

Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, who drafted the revision to the Open Records law, defended the proposed muzzle.

"The agency is in many ways judicial in nature and it is by our analysis a fairly common type of restriction that judges abide by," he said.