Pennsylvania in Focus

Gov. Josh Shapiro won’t send the Pennsylvania National Guard to the Mexican border. In response to legislation approved in the state Senate on Tuesday, the administration told The Center Square that congressional immigration reform is the solution to border security concerns. “Governor Shapiro has been clear that our country needs a secure border and Congress needs to pass comprehensive reform to fix our broken immigration system,” said Manuel Bonder, the governor’s spokesman. “This issue requires leaders in both parties to step up and deliver real, comprehensive solutions — not more of the failed talking points and political grandstanding that have brought us decades without immigration reform.”

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Pennsylvanians worry about pollution and other harms to nature — but their primary concern is keeping energy bills low and ensuring reliable power. And, to deal with climate change, almost 8 in 10 Pennsylvanians aren’t willing to spend $100 or more every year out of pocket. A new survey on Pennsylvanians’ energy thoughts, released by the Commonwealth Foundation on Thursday, shows strong support for maintaining energy independence, but also highlights contradictory thinking on energy policy.

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Pittsburgh’s recent decision to reroute early morning emergency calls comes one year after the mayor planned to triple police presence downtown. The policy change, announced Feb. 22, means calls received between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. for crimes not in progress – including theft, harassment and criminal mischief – will reroute to the Telephone Reporting Unit. The unit is staffed from 7 a.m. until 3 a.m. the following day, so incidents occurring in the four-hour window will be collected for an officer to follow up with during the morning shift. 

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 Gov. Josh Shapiro introduced a new plan to limit carbon emissions from power plants on Wednesday that echoes the program legislative Republicans abhor so much they sued the administration to thwart it. This time, however, instead of supporting a multi-state auction like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, Shapiro wants to keep the revenue collected from a state-imposed emissions cap and trade program within Pennsylvania itself. And, he added, if lawmakers get behind it, he will back away from RGGI and the appeal he filed to overturn a Commonwealth Court ruling that put Pennsylvania’s participation in it on hold.

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 The cost of Pennsylvania’s extensive Medicaid waiver pending before the federal government leaves some lawmakers wary as budget talks stretch into their second week. Department of Human Services Secretary Valerie Arkoosh told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday that it wants more funding to expand eligibility for safety net programs for five years, as well as bolster the services they already provide. But it’s unclear what the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will approve or how much it will cost.

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The Shapiro administration said Monday it supports giving non-citizens driver’s licenses, following a trend across the Mid-Atlantic that posits the policy change as a safety measure. “There are reports of over a dozen states that already allow non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, to obtain driver’s licenses,” Rep. Mike Cabell, R-Dallas, said. “Meanwhile, federal DHS policy stipulates that states could offer those with TPS (Temporary Protected Status) a Real ID.” Eighteen states, including Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New Jersey already do so. A similar effort, House Bill 769, has been proposed and sits in the Transportation Committee, but the effort has the support of the executive.

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Pennsylvania lawmakers rallied at the Capitol on Tuesday to erase outstanding medical debts for thousands of residents. House Bill 78 would create a new program in the Department of Health that would discharge debt for residents living at-or-below 400% of the federal poverty level – or up to $60,240 for a single person and $124,800 for a family of four. Obligations totaling 5% or more of a person's income would also qualify under the program.

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House Republicans support Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's rhetoric to reform the commonwealth’s permitting process, but they’re not satisfied with the pace of his push. “We have a governor that ran on permitting reform,” Rep. Josh Kail, R-Beaver, said. “Unfortunately, there hasn't been progress made the way there should have been in the first year of his administration.” The House GOP Policy Committee met Wednesday in Tamaqua to discuss how to remove obstacles to opportunity, and much of the hearing centered on housing issues.

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As fentanyl-connected overdoses kill thousands of Pennsylvanians every year, the opioid shows up in traffic-crash data, too. A study from Jerry, a car insurance app, found that 6% of Philadelphia’s fatal crashes involved drugs from 2018-2021. The data, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, showed that 2% of all traffic fatalities in the city were connected to fentanyl. That’s the highest rate of all cities in the commonwealth; 32% of all drug-related traffic fatalities were connected to fentanyl.

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As Pennsylvania lawmakers kick off annual budget hearings on Tuesday, the Independent Fiscal Office fielded questions about revenue projections, the minimum wage and what could cause problems for the general fund. In his budget presentation to the Senate Appropriations Committee, IFO Director Matthew Knittel noted that his office was less rosy that the governor's administration on the state’s tax-and-spending balance. IFO projections expect a $4.2 billion budget deficit in 2024-25 with current policy, rising to a $6.7 billion deficit in 2028-29. The gap between IFO projections and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s estimate is about $1 billion in the current fiscal year, but $4.5 billion by 2028-29.

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