News & Brews February 4, 2025
Get News & Brews in your inbox each day: Subscribe here!
Shapiro to deliver state budget address today
Today at 11:30, Gov. Josh Shapiro is scheduled to deliver his third budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly. As the Commonwealth Foundation’s Nathan Benefield wrote, it remains to be seen whether he will address the $3.6 billion structural deficit that he has “ignored and expanded.” We’ll also be listening for whether Shapiro finally makes good on his promise to Pennsylvania children and families by calling for school choice. The budget address will be live streamed here.
GOP lawmakers to deliver budget responses
Pa. House and Senate Republicans will hold respective press conferences after Shapiro’s budget address to deliver their reactions and responses. The Senate presser is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. (although subject to change depending on when the budget address ends), and the House press conference time is “TBD.” Watch the House presser here and the Senate presser here.
Union membership fell to record low in 2024
Even as labor unions want you to think they’re more popular than ever, in fact, they’re not. Reuters reports, “U.S. union membership levels declined slightly to record lows last year,” dipping from 10% in 2023 to 9.9% in 2024. In real numbers, “Just over 14 million U.S. workers were members of unions in a total work force of 145 million.” Notably, “the union membership rate for government workers was five times higher than for private sector workers.” And it’s these government unions that fund Democrat politicians and then lobby these same politicians for sweet deals that require higher taxes on the rest of us.
U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel make their case in court
The Tribune Review reports, “U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel laid out their case Monday that then-President Joe Biden hamstrung a national security review to justify blocking the companies’ merger…. The lawsuit also calls Biden’s decision into question as driven by election-year politics, not national security — in particular his effort to gain a critical labor union’s support for his reelection campaign in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.” The companies want “the court to throw out Biden’s decision and initiate a second national security review — a tall, but not unprecedented ask.”
Pa. Dep’t of Revenue issues 240,000 incorrect tax forms
PennLive reports that the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue said about 240,000 1099-G tax forms, which “are used to report state income tax refunds, credits, or offsets expenses on tax returns,” were sent with incorrect numbers to taxpayers. Specifically, for those requesting a carry-forward credit, the amount was mistakenly doubled. “The department said the majority of forms were issued to online accounts and … taxpayers should begin to see new forms appear in their online accounts.” Meanwhile, those who requested paper forms will receive new ones in the mail.
Another big development in cold case with Shapiro ties
And there’s been another development in the case surrounding the death of Ellen Greenberg—a case with ties to Gov. Josh Shapiro when he was attorney general. Yesterday, just before jury selection was set to begin in one of two lawsuits brought by Ellen’s parents, the city of Philadelphia settled both lawsuits. As part of the settlement, “the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an ‘expeditious’ review of the manner of Greenberg’s 2011 death by 20 stab wounds, which was initially ruled homicide then switched to suicide.” When asked to review the case as attorney general, Shapiro stood by the suicide ruling.