GOP statehouse rule faces test this month

HARRISBURG - This month offers a new test of whether Republican one-party rule in Harrisburg can produce agenda-shaping laws along with state budgets passed on time.

GOP legislative leaders said they have already met the test by enacting a host of laws to curb costs in state public welfare and unemployment compensation programs, limit corporate liability in some civil lawsuits, shine more light on government spending, require specific photo identification at the polls as well as making strides in reducing state debt and helping businesses create jobs.

"It's bunk," said House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-28, Pittsburgh, referring to a spate of reports about a GOP statehouse deadlock. "This session has been one of the most significant and productive."

Standing next to Mr. Turzai, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-9, Chester, agreed with his colleague's assessment.

"This is something that comes up every 30 days or so," he said. "You can't please everybody all the time."

However, several of the accomplishments cited above, while important to business constituencies, are considered second-tier agenda items. They lack the emotional high-five for the party's conservative base that would come with a legislative victory expanding school choice options to include student tuition vouchers or selling the state-owned liquor stores to private owners.

That school choice and liquor store divestiture eluded previous Republican governors during eras of one-party rule only adds to the chagrin.

Meanwhile, GOP Gov. Tom Corbett's appointment of his general counsel Stephen Aichele to succeed a long-time aide as chief of staff and a private meeting last week between the governor and longtime supporters have led to media speculation about an administration adrift.

Mr. Corbett hasn't taken a hands-on approach to the lawmaking process, said Terry Madonna, Ph.D., pollster at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster. The governor faces a difficult environment to govern with many newcomers to legislative ranks, moderate conservatives leading the Senate and the House under Tea Party influence, added Dr. Madonna.

June offers the last big opportunity for Mr. Corbett and the House and Senate to enact big-ticket legislation along with a $27 plus billion state budget for fiscal 2012-13 before the Nov. 6 general election.

With legislative leaders vowing to avoid any "lame duck" or post-election session, only several weeks will remain for work this fall before a traditional mid-October recess for campaigning.

Today, lawmakers start a month of uninterrupted session weeks leading up to the June 30 budget passage deadline.

The focus of the budget debate is how far to go restoring state spending cuts proposed by Mr. Corbett in February when Pennsylvania's fiscal picture was more dire.

A Senate-approved budget bill restores $500 million in cuts, mainly in the areas of basic and higher education and county-run human services programs. The impact of cuts to public schools have received considerable public attention in recent weeks.

Mr. Turzai offered praise for the Senate bill last week as budget negotiations continue. Mr. Pileggi said enacting a budget by mid-June is an optimistic scenario, but still achievable, depending on how the governor responds in the final round of negotiations. But the path gets murkier when it comes to bills on school choice, liquor stores or transportation funding landing on Mr. Corbett's desk by month's end.

Mr. Turzai wants to complete House action this month on a liquor store sale bill, a favorite cause of his, but he isn't tying that issue to budget passage.

Democratic lawmakers, heavily outnumbered in both chambers, are making an effort to link state education cuts with local school cutbacks and hikes in school property taxes.

"Gov. Corbett's education policies have decimated public schools with historic and devastating cuts resulting in more than 14,000 public school job losses, property tax increases in more than half of Pennsylvania's 500 school districts and unprecedented cuts to academic and extracurricular programs," said House Democrats in a memo about Mr. Corbett's 500 days in office.

House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-33, Allegheny County, disputed his GOP counterpart's listing of the welfare, unemployment compensation and voter identification laws as accomplishments.

"It's not an accomplishment to unilaterally take 80,000 children off medical assistance," he said. "I don't believe it's progress to suppress the vote."

Mr. Dermody said Republicans are ignoring crucial issues like bridge and road repairs to focus on issues like cutting off funds to Planned Parenthood.

"They are trying to push a radical agenda," he added. "They have had some limited success."

Lawmakers of both parties weigh issues like school choice and liquor store sales based on the views of their constituents, said Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Nanticoke, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"It's very difficult to have a one-man ideologically driven agenda," he added. "You have 253 legislators that represent a very diverse population."

The more promising bets for final votes this month are on bills to curb buyouts of school superintendent contracts and reduce the number of non-violent offenders in state prisons and retool community corrections centers to house inmates nearing parole. Mr. Corbett is pushing action on the prison legislation.

On prime legislation involving Northeast Pennsylvania, Republicans enacted most of the bills this spring to reform juvenile justice practices in response to the courthouse scandal in Luzerne County. These bills first appeared the previous session in a divided General Assembly.

Yet, getting the juvenile justice bills to the finishing line took some work. Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., called attention publicly at one point to the lack of progress on a now enacted law to require that juvenile defendants be represented by counsel at court hearings.

Ideological differences between the House and Senate over state borrowing have held up final action so far on a package of bills to provide supplemental state aid to victims of last September's destructive flooding in the Susquehanna River Basin. In 1996, a state aid package cleared a GOP-run statehouse five months after the one-two punch of a blizzard and flood that January.

A study of Pennsylvania's Legislature by Temple University's Institute for Public Affairs finds unified government is hardly a ticket to passing major laws. Since 1970, Republicans have had unified control for 11 years and Democrats seven years. Party control of the legislative branches was split during the remaining 23 years.

Among the top laws enacted during this period, seven including the Pennsylvania Lottery and Megan's Law dealing with sexual offenders are products of one-party control. Sixteen laws, including the slots law and public employee collective bargaining, occurred under divided rule.

One-party control tends if nothing else to produce on-time or early budgets. During the Ridge administration, Republicans were able to pass budgets in mid-June due to huge tax revenue surpluses.

Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com

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