News & Brews December 12, 2024
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Casey won’t rule out another run for office
Fresh off his loss to Senator-elect Dave McCormick, Democrat U.S. Sen Bob Casey says he’s neither retiring nor ruling out another run for public office. “I never say never,” Casey said. “I think every public official and everyone who goes before the voters and asks for their vote has a period of time when they’re in office and a period of time when they’re out – this will be a break from public service, but you never know.”
‘Last-ditch’ effort on U.S. Steel sale as Shapiro stays silent
WESA reports, “With U.S. Steel’s proposed sale to Japanese firm Nippon Steel in peril, local officials are making a final attempt to build support for it — while other backers hope Gov. Josh Shapiro will weigh in as well.” Shapiro has taken his typical weak approach of not taking a stand on either side of the issue. Today, supporters of the sale plan to hold a rally, which “is one of several last-ditch efforts to salvage the deal.” Earlier this week, Nippon announced that it would offer a $5,000 “closing bonus” to U.S. Steel employees in the United States. And, “Last week Nippon sent a letter the president of the United Steelworkers Union, Dave McCall, promising that the $2.4 billion in commitments to improving facilities would cover long-term investments such as relining blast furnaces.” Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association President and CEO David N. Taylor, who backs the sale, said Gov. Shapiro “is the only one who conceivably could talk sense to Biden” to allow the sale to move forward. Shapiro, however, is instead pursuing his strategy of silence.
A look at Gov. Shapiro’s record on pardons
Spotlight PA reports that during his second term in office, former Gov. Wolf “granted more than 1,600 applications” for clemency from the Pa. Board of Pardons. This was “double the number he signed during his first term and nearly all of the applications recommended to him by the board.” By comparison, “In his first two years as governor, Shapiro approved about half of the nearly 900 applications for pardons and commutations that the board sent to his desk. But Shapiro has formally rejected only 26 applications, leaving the rest open for consideration.”
DelCo Dems approve 23% property tax hike
In the wake of Allegheny County’s passing a 36% property tax increase earlier this month, four of the five Democrats on the Delaware County Council voted yesterday to pass a 23% hike on property taxes. It’s a cautionary tale, as NBC Philadelphia reports that among the reasons for the tax hike is “the reliance on one-time funding.” Harrisburg, take note. How many times (including during last year’s budget season) have Republicans warned that relying on one-time funding for recurring spending will lead to a deficit and future tax hikes? And just recently, the state’s Independent Fiscal Office warned that Pennsylvania’s budget surplus is about to disappear, which is exactly what many Republican lawmakers predicted would happen as a result of Democrats’ and Gov. Shapiro’s raiding the surplus and Rainy Day fund to pay for spending.
Largest Pa. coal-fired plant converting to natural gas
The Homer Generating Station in Indiana, Pa., which was the state’s largest coal-fired plant before it closed in 2023, has announced plans to reopen as a natural-gas fired station. POWER reports that Robin Gorman, the Vice President of Homer City Redevelopment, “said the plant’s generation capacity could potentially be doubled, which would make it the largest natural gas-fired power plant in the U.S., topping the 3,777-MW West County Energy Center in Palm Beach County, Florida.”