News & Brews February 19, 2025
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Budget hearings focus on revenue projections
Yesterday’s budget hearings with the Pa. Department of Revenue included pointed questions on Gov. Shapiro’s rosy revenue projections vs. the Independent Fiscal Office’s (IFO) more realistic ones. Revenue Secretary Pat Browne said the Shapiro administration is “confident that the commonwealth will produce in total revenue the amount that we have, the amount that the governor has certified and put into his budget.” But GOP state Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (York County) said to Browne, “The Independent Fiscal Office paints a very different picture than what your department is projecting for the future fiscal outlook of the commonwealth. How can your team and the Independent Fiscal Office be so far apart?” Meanwhile, Democrat state Sen. Amanda Cappelletti (Delaware and Montgomery counties) questioned the IFO’s deficit projections (notwithstanding the huge deficit that exists right now).
WSJ: Is new GOP ‘pro-union’ or ‘pro-worker’?
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board writes that today, President Trump’s pick to lead the Labor Department will face Senate questioning, “and the main issue is whether Lori Chavez-DeRemer sees her job as helping workers and the larger economy or the union bosses who back her.” Chavez-DeRemer’s history has raised deep concerns among those who back workers’ rights. She “credits union support for her 2022 victory for an Oregon House seat, and she’s returned the favor at every turn. That includes cosponsoring the Pro Act. That Democratic bill would eliminate decades-old protections for workers who don’t want to join a union, and for managers who want to discourage employees from adopting a union.” Her confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. this morning and should be live streamed here.
Shapiro nominates DEP and ED Department heads
Gov. Shapiro has nominated Department of Environmental Protection Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley as the next DEP Secretary and Department of Education Deputy Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education Carrie Rowe to be the next Education Secretary. Former Ed Secretary Khalid Mumin resigned in December and now works for the Goldie Hawn Foundation. Shirley has been the DEP Acting Secretary since former DEP Secretary Rich Negrin resigned in 2023. Both nominees now face Senate confirmation.
Shapiro CNIT pitch has ‘costly strings’
As a candidate, Gov. Shapiro talked about accelerating the reduction of Pennsylvania’s ridiculously high corporate net income tax. Then, in his first two budget addresses, he did nothing to fulfill this pledge. Come to year three, and he finally said Pa. should speed up the existing reduction schedule. But there are strings attached: Shapiro also wants to implement combined reporting for corporations. As the Pa. Chamber explains, this would lead to “increased cost and complexity to filing tax returns, increased tax appeals and litigation, and creating an overall disincentive to do business in Pennsylvania.”
Meet the ‘Parker Picks Employment Agency’
Former Daily News and Inquirer columnist Stu Bykofsky takes a look at Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s “odd taste in hiring.” Particularly, her preference for hiring convicted felons, as long as they’re Democrats. “Let’s go all the way back to November, closing out her first year as Philadelphia’s 100th mayor,” he writes, “Parker hired not one, not two, but three felons — each a formerly elected official — to city jobs.” At the time, a spokesperson said the mayor believed in “second chances.” Well, “So do I,” Bykofsky writes, “but not necessarily at the expense of taxpayers whom the felons had betrayed in the first place.”