News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap The Pennsylvania General Assembly wrapped up its business for the 2017 calendar year this week, marking the half-way…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap Back from this weekend’s Pennsylvania Society festivities, the House of Representatives were back to work on Monday morning,…
Worth Another Look – Gaming Expansion
The legislature recently passed H.B. 271 (Ortitay, R-Allegheny), one of, if not the largest, gaming expansion bills seen across the…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap It was back to business as usual this week in Harrisburg, as the Senate returned for three days…
Worth Another Look: The Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs
Today, Governor Wolf issued an Executive Order calling on the Commissioner of the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs to…
Worth Another Look: Judicial Election Results
Though voter turnout was quite low for Tuesday’s municipal election (around 25%), women carried the day, at least for the…
Worth Another Look: Judicial Races
Tuesday is Election Day, and though it comes with little fanfare this year, there are still some important races to…
News from Second & State
Budget Update It was a busy week in Harrisburg as the legislature got down to the business of putting the…
Worth Another Look: The Tax Reform Code
Time to raise the roof: a bill to raise the revenue (necessary to fund the 2017-2018 state budget) is finally…
Worth Another Look: The Public School Code
As we make our way toward finally finishing the 2017-2018 fiscal year budget, another “code bill” reached the governor’s desk.…
Worth Another Look: The Fiscal Code
We inched a little closer to a completed 2017-2018 state budget with the House’s final passage of H.B. 674 (Prime…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap Beyond the budget, there was some significant legislative activity. First, on Monday the House Education Committee reported out…
Budget Update
The state budget stalemate continues nearly four months after the due date, but this week we finally saw some movement…
Worth Another Look: The Human Services Code
The first and only “code bill” to reach the Governor’s desk this fiscal year is H.B. 59 (Moul, R-Adams), the…
Worth Another Look: The Administrative Code
Pennsylvania has been without a completed state spending plan for the current fiscal year for more than three months now.…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap With a national holiday on Monday and no session for either chamber, it was a quiet week in…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap This week brought another false start to the now four-month overdue state budget. All signs pointed toward “go”…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap Pennsylvania’s state spending plan for the 2017-2018 fiscal year is long overdue. Yes, we had a “budget” by…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap This was the Senate’s first week back from their summer break and it was rather quiet up on…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap As of our last writing, the General Assembly had sent Governor Wolf a budget bill in time to…
Worth Another Look: The Future of Healthcare Reform
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
Worth Another Look: Police-Community Relations
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
Worth Another Look: Affordability of Higher Education
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
Worth Another Look: Fending Off Cyberattacks
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
Worth Another Look: Transportation Infrastructure
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
Worth Another Look: Marijuana, Phase 2
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
Worth Another Look: Planning for ESSA
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
Worth Another Look: Immigration Reform
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
Worth Another Look: Children of the Opioid Epidemic
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
Worth Another Look: Regulations on Review
In January of 2017, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a list of the top 10 issues that…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap This was the week of the budget that wasn’t. Just in time to meet the deadline, the general…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap Today is the day. On the last day of the fiscal year, the House and Senate are still…
News from Second & State
Weekly Wrap Today marks just one week until the June 30 budget deadline. Seven days. A mere 168 hours to…
News From Second & State
Weekly Wrap As we close out week two of “budget month,” there’s not a whole lot to report on that…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap It is clear in Harrisburg that budget season has arrived. The busy week started on Sunday evening, when…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap It was a quiet week at the Capitol, as the Memorial Day holiday meant no session for either…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap We are now about one month away from the end of the 2016-2017 fiscal year, and if this…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap This week’s big news is not from the General Assembly, but from the Commonwealth’s judicial branch. Candidates in…
Worth Another Look: Municipal Primary Election Results
The 2017 municipal primary election came and went with little fanfare. Perhaps the nerves of Pennsylvania voters needed a break…
Weekly Wrap It was a busy week in Harrisburg, with both the House of Representatives and the Senate here for…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap All was quiet on the Capitol front this week with neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate…
Worth Another Look – Judicial Races
This year’s primary election is just under two weeks away. While most of the elections being held throughout the Commonwealth…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap Pennsylvania’s budget deadline is just about two months away, and the General Assembly got to work this week…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap It was a busy week in Harrisburg with both chambers in session at the same time in over…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap Though the legislature was not in Harrisburg for session this week, there’s still some news you can use…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap Only the House of Representatives were in session this week, but it was a pretty busy week nonetheless.…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap Only the Senate was in Harrisburg for session this week, but it was a busy one nonetheless. Meanwhile,…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap This week was the first time this year that both the House of Representatives and Senate were in…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap Thanks to Winter Storm Stella, the House of Representatives made short work of this week’s session; adjourning on…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap This was the third and final week of budget hearings for the House of Representatives and Senate Appropriations…
Weekly Wrap
Budget hearings were the name of the game again this week, with a few other committee meetings sprinkled in throughout…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap The House of Representatives and Senate Appropriations Committees began budget hearings this week to examine Governor Wolf’s proposed…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap This week’s headliner was, of course, Gov. Wolf’s third budget address. Wolf proposed a budget with a modest…
Worth Another Look
Budget Theme: Government that Works As he has in previous years, Governor Wolf highlighted the need for “government that works”…
Worth Another Look
Budget Theme: Schools that Teach As he has in previous years, Governor Wolf highlighted the need for “schools that teach”…
Worth Another Look
Budget Theme: Jobs that Pay As he has in previous years, Governor Wolf highlighted the need for “jobs that pay”…
News from Second and State
Budget Address Edition Governor Wolf delivered his third budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly today. Though…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap It was a relatively quiet week in the capitol with only the Senate in Harrisburg for session. On…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap The capitol was abuzz as the state legislature got down to business this first full week of the…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap The biggest news in Harrisburg this week was the swearing-in of our newly elected row officers. Josh Shapiro…
News from Second and State
Weekly Wrap The holidays have come and gone and folks in Harrisburg are ready to get back to the legislative…