By The PA. AFL-CIO

– Governor Tom Wolf made good on one of his campaign promises to working Pennsylvanians this week by announcing his plan to replace Corbett’s Healthy Pa with traditional Medicaid expansion.

The announcement was praised by groups representing uninsured working families and by the Pennsylvania Health Access Network a coalition of organizations which include many unions representing workers in the health industry. They described Corbett’s Healthy PA which began on January 1 2015 as a quagmire fraught with unnecessary costs and hurdles that was preventing working families from enrolling in the programs

“Governor Wolf’s move would be boon for all taxpayers because it would lead to fewer emergency room visits by uninsured working Pennsylvanians. By acting to move Pennsylvanians into one benefit package, eliminating the invasive health screening questionnaire, and simplifying the process, Gov. Wolf is acting in the best interest of patients and taxpayers,” said the Director of PHAN, Antoinette Kraus.

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/

By Mary Wilson

– Pennsylvania House Republicans are taking another run at liquor privatization, and they’re picking up where they left off two years ago.

The House GOP plans to vote on a plan to phase out state wine and spirit stores and expand the sale of alcohol in big-box stores, supermarkets, and beer distributors. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the same proposal passed the House in 2013, only to die in the Senate.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed said passing it again will set up a negotiation with senators and the Wolf administration, though he doesn’t expect support for the bill from those quarters.

“I expect that we begin the negotiation process where we left off last session, and then it’ll be up to the Senate and the governor to put something on the table that they can support,” said Reed. “We thought this was a good opportunity to put a potential revenue source.”

House Republicans say the measure could yield $1 billion in up-front revenue for the state.

Democrats, including Gov. Tom Wolf, remain opposed. Wolf has said he supports changes that make the existing state liquor system more profitable.

Source: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/78390-stirred-and-not-shaken-pa-gop-to-reintroduce-liquor-privatization-plan?linktype=hp_impact

(Brief PhillyLabor Editorial – Pa. GOP Leaders absolutely will not rest until they put 5000 + Pa. workers out of a job. DISGRACEFUL!)

By Holly Otterbein

– The law will go into effect in three months. Did its anticipated passage help Philly land the DNC?

– Mayor Michael Nutter signed mandatory paid sick leave into law Thursday, just hours after City Council passed the legislation.

“I think we finally struck the right balance between the needs of employees and employers,” said Nutter. “That’s been my goal from day one.”

At a bill-signing ceremony, Nutter noted that Philadelphia was selected today to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
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“We’re going to do something really great for citizens of Philadelphia,” said Nutter, “and also help to carry this message across the United States of America.”

City Councilman Bill Greenlee, the sponsor of the bill, said that rumor has it that the anticipated passage of paid sick leave helped Philly land the convention. “It helped,” Nutter said.

The law will go into effect in 90 days.
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[Original, 11:51 p.m.] City Councilman Bill Greenlee won his seven-year fight Thursday to pass legislation requiring Philadelphia businesses to provide paid sick leave to their employees.

The City Council passed the bill 14-2.

The legislation mandates that companies with at least 10 employees offer the benefit. Employees would earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked, for a maximum total of five days annually.

This is the third time since 2008 that Greenlee has introduced paid sick leave legislation. Mayor Michael Nutter twice vetoed such bills, but he has announced that he’ll sign it today at 2:30 p.m. at City Hall. Everett Gillison, Nutter’s chief-of-staff, says Nutter did not believe the time was right for paid sick leave in past years because the city was still grappling with the recession.

Greenlee’s remarks on the Council floor were brief. He said, “Earned paid sick leave is the right thing to do … let’s finally do it.”

Source: http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/02/12/7-year-fight-council-passes-michael-nutter-signs-philadelphia-paid-sick-leave/

By Francis Hilario

– The Democratic Party has chosen Philadelphia to host its 2016 national convention.

“In addition to their commitment to a seamless and safe convention, Philadelphia’s deep rooted place in American history provides a perfect setting for this special gathering. I cannot wait to join Democrats across the country to celebrate our shared values, lay out a Democratic vision for the future, and support our nominee,” said DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Thursday.

Philadelphia was one of three finalists for the convention, along with Brooklyn and Columbus, Ohio.

The convention, held the week of July 25, will serve as a passing of the torch from President Barack Obama to the winner of the Democratic primary. At this point, Hillary Rodham Clinton is leading many of the polls, but 2016 is still a long way away.

The Democratic convention will be a huge boon for the city, with thousands of people, media and economic impact expected to come to Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. The DNC anticipates 50,000 attendees, filling up to 80,000 hotel room-nights, based on projections from its 2008 convention in Denver.

The last time Philadelphia held a national convention was in 2000, when the Republican party held its convention from July 31-Aug. 3.

The RNC brought in more than 45,000 people to the First Union Center (now the Wells Fargo Center) and 15,000 members of the media. The convention had an economic impact of $170 million, with a combined direct and indirect impact of $345 million.

RNC attendees also booked 111,000 hotel room-nights, creating hotel revenues of about $25 million. The convention created 4,777 full-time equivalent jobs in the region during the summer, generating $167 million in personal income.

Next year’s RNC will take place July 18-21 in Cleveland.

Choosing a host city was based on a number of factors, including the city’s transportation, hotels and the facility holding the convention, experts said in interviews last month. Other factors for any convention included the city’s political leadership and financial resources.

“The kind of factors that are probably the most important in terms of valuation of cities are the obvious ones: Hotels, the facility to hold the event in [and] logistics,” Alan Kessler, former finance vice chair of the DNC said in an earlier interview with the Philadelphia Business Journal. “The single most important is financial guarantee.”

Our panel of experts — including Gov. Ed Rendell— handicapped each city’s chance for the big score recently back when five cities were still in contention. Check it out here.

Gov. Tom Wolf made the following statement:

“Today’s announcement is tremendous news for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The birthplace of our democracy will host the Democratic National Convention in 2016, which will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity in the state. We look forward to working with local leaders to ensure that Philadelphia will shine in the national spotlight.”

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2015/02/12/philadelphia-will-host-the-2016-democratic.html

By Katie Colaneri

– Governor Tom Wolf made good on a campaign promise Wednesday and proposed a severance tax on natural gas drilling. Speaking in an elementary school classroom in Thorndale, Chester County, Wolf said the “lion’s share” of the revenue will go to hiking overall funding for public education.

“We sit on top of one of the richest deposits of natural gas in the world,” he said. “We have the natural resources to actually do something about the problem here.”

Wolf’s proposal calls for a 5 percent tax on the value of natural gas at the wellhead, plus 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet of volume pulled out of the ground to hedge against fluctuations in prices. The governor’s plan is modeled on neighboring West Virginia’s severance tax structure and he projects it would generate $1 billion in its first year, which is about $800,000 more each year than the current impact fee.

Since 2012, drillers have paid a fee for every well with most of the money going back to communities that host the drilling.

Under Wolf’s proposal, the tax would replace the impact fee while maintaining a certain portion of revenue for impacted communities. The governor said he has not yet “worked out the formula” for how much of the money would be distributed among local governments and spent on education, as well as boosting environmental protection.

Polls have shown public support for a severance tax in Pennsylvania. However, the natural gas industry has lobbied against it, claiming it would create an unfriendly business climate in the state and could prompt a slow-down in drilling operations.

“Make no mistake, adding a five percent tax to any business sector – including the energy industry – is going to reduce capital spending and hit the supply chain, especially Pennsylvania-based small and mid-sized businesses, as well as our region’s labor and building trades,” said Marcellus Shale Coalition president Dave Spigelmyer in a press release.

Wolf believes the tax will garner more public support for natural gas drillers.

“I think this is the best thing that could happen to the industry because it could make all of us in Pennsylvania partners in the success of this industry,” he said. “So my argument to them is this is really smart.”

The Democrat will also have to contend with leaders in Pennsylvania’s Republican legislature who have other priorities, including pension reform and privatizing state-run liquor stores.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R- Centre) said he understand’s Wolf’s interest in a severance tax, but pension reform is a more pressing matter.

“We repeatedly have said we cannot consider new revenue until we deal with pensions, which will have the effect of saving significant tax dollars,” Corman said in a statement. “We have a bucket that is leaking. It would be a misstep to persist at putting water in the bucket without first plugging the leak.”

A spokesman for House Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Marshall), who opposes a severance tax, did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

Source: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/78396-wolf-proposes-5-percent-tax-on-gas-drillers-to-fund-education?linktype=hp_impact