Government Affairs & General UpdatesJuly 21, 2023 1. PASSHE board approves tuition freeze for fifth consecutive year. The Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education voted Thursday to freeze tuition for in-state students for the coming academic year for the fifth consecutive years. If tuition had kept pace with inflation…
Read More Government Affairs & General Updates July 20, 2023 1. Democrat quits Pa. House, leaving chamber tied at 101-101. A special election is set for September – A Democratic lawmaker from Pittsburgh resigned Wednesday from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, moving the razor-thin majority her party has held this year to a partisan tie with…
Read More Government Affairs & General UpdatesJuly 19, 2023 1. Pa. House brings severance tax idea back around, raising an old debate in the nation’s 2nd-largest gas producer – There’s talk of a severance tax on natural gas in Harrisburg again. The state House passed a resolution directing a nonpartisan committee to study severance tax structures…
Read More Government Affairs & General UpdatesJuly 18, 2023 1. What’s next as Pa. prepares to spend $1.2B on broadband – Before Pennsylvania can spend an almost $1.2 billion windfall of federal funding for high-speed internet, it must figure out how to use it. More than 270,000 locations across the commonwealth can’t get internet at speeds…
Read More Government Affairs & General Updates July 14, 2023 1. Pittman suggests Senate GOP will want other provisions removed from budget if Shapiro uses line-item veto to ax voucher provision. In an interview with KDKA this week, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, made explicit what had previously seemed more implicit – that if Gov.…
Read More Government Affairs & General UpdatesJuly 13, 2023 1. Budget deal unlikely before September – Both chambers of the General Assembly officially left Harrisburg for the summer — an ominous sign that the bipartisan wound won’t heal anytime soon. The development comes nearly two weeks after the Senate recessed until mid-September, furious over Gov. Josh…
Read More Government Affairs & General UpdatesJuly 12, 2023 1. 10 things you need to know about PA’s budget impasse – Pennsylvania’s state budget is currently stuck in legislative limbo as the result of an impasse between the politically divided state legislature and the state’s Democratic governor – with no clear sign of the gridlock breaking…
Read More