News & Brews May 31, 2022
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Hearing scheduled today on undated ballots in Senate primary
The Commonwealth Court has scheduled a hearing this morning at 10am on the petition by GOP Senate candidate David McCormick to apply to his race the recent Third Circuit ruling requiring that undated mail-in ballots be counted. Gov. Wolf’s Department of State previously issued guidance to counties saying these ballots should be segregated but “continue to be maintained, preserved, and appropriately logged pending litigation.” Selected court documents from McCormick’s suit can be found here. And click here at 10am for a livestream of the hearing.
Exit interviews: Toomey, Wolf, & Corman
City & State PA has a series of ‘exit interviews’ with some of the high-profile elected officials who are leaving public office this year. I’m not sure how many interviews will ultimately be in the series, but three are posted so far: Sen Pat Toomey, Gov. Tom Wolf, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman. If I see more, I will share!
Will high-profile incumbent primary losses impact budget season?
Among the GOP incumbents to lose to primary challengers earlier this month was House Appropriations Committee Chair Stan Saylor. And it appears Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Pat Browne may also be poised to lose his seat in a close race. Spotlight PA looked at how these losses may impact budget negotiations this year.
Business leaders push for CNIT reduction
As the traditional June 30 budget deadline approaches, nearly 50 chambers of commerce statewide signed a letter to lawmakers asking them to reduce our 9.99% corporate net income tax. While reducing the tax has broad bipartisan support, hiccups remain as Gov. Wolf wants to pair the reduction with other tax changes that, according to the chambers, “would diminish the benefits of a rate reduction.” Read more here.
How two SWPA incumbent lawmakers lost to primary challengers
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette spoke with two recent GOP primary winners who defeated incumbent lawmakers on May 17. While both challengers succeeded in getting their names on the November ballot, their reasons for running were very different. Read more here.
Op-Ed: Spending to blame for inflation
The Commonwealth Foundation’s Nathan Benefield had an op-ed in PennLive explaining that the root cause of the historic inflation we’re seeing is government spending. Nathan writes, “Multiple studies find that the dramatic increase in federal ‘stimulus’ payments, which gave individuals more spending cash and paid them to not work, exacerbated inflationary pressures.” Read Nate’s piece here.