**Contact your State Rep and demand that they oppose this bill that is clearly out to weaken our Unions and Pennsylvania Working Families!**

HARRISBURG — Paycheck protection could move to the House floor this week a midst dragging budget negotiations frayed by Gov. Tom Corbett’s pension ultimatum. Whether the bill will get on to the full chamber’s agenda before lawmakers recess for the summer remains unclear.

The House State Government Committee called a last-minute off-the-floor meeting on Monday to vet House Bill 1507 — which would ban unions from using automatic paycheck deductions to collect dues — and a proposed amendment that would clarify definitions within the legislation and allow payroll deductions for fair share contributions.

Democratic committee members failed twice to table both votes and sparred with their GOP counterparts over the legitimacy of the bill and the “inappropriate” way in which Monday’s meeting was organized.

“Let’s tell the truth and call this legislation what it is,” said Rep. Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, just before voting against the bill. “This is not about protecting taxpayer’s money … it is clearly about union busting.”

Committee Democrats piled on top of Harris’s comment, each attacking the bill for “singling out” unions and ignoring other payroll-deducted contributions, such as for insurance companies, who they say also use the money for lobbying.

Committee Republicans rebuffed the fervor with a “common sense, right-versus-wrong” mantra.
“I think this a very simple matter,” said Rep. Brad Roae, R-Crawford. “It’s an easy vote. I don’t understand what all the controversy is about. It’s always wrong to use local property tax money to pay school district employees to collect political campaign money. The unions are the only ones allowed to do it. It’s always wrong. We have former legislators that went to prison because they were using tax money for campaign purposes. Political campaign money and taxpayer money are two totally unrelated pots of money.”

The amendment passed on a vote of 14-9 and the bill passed on a vote of 14-10.

Steve Miskin, spokesman for House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, said Monday the bill had been sent to the House Rules Committee, but offered no further insight into its future.