News & Brews June 24, 2025
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Lawmaker questions Shapiro admin on sports ticket spending
GOP state Sen. Jarrett Coleman (Bucks & Lehigh counties) has sent a letter to the Shapiro administration asking for “details on spending under a $1 million amendment made to a state grant support contract just before the high-profile golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club,” the Post-Gazette reports. “Among items covered in the amendment, the letter said, was a ‘sponsorship’ with an ‘outdoor seating area, hospitality tickets, parking passes and a pre-championship golf outing.” Coleman is questioning “why the contract was amended less than two weeks before the tournament, as well as how many passes, tickets and golf outing slots … [the administration] received. He also wants to know which employees and ‘external parties’ got them, and he held out the possibility of hearings.”
Many GOPers urge Garrity to run for governor
The Inquirer reports, “A number of top Pennsylvania Republicans — from county party chairs, to state lawmakers, to a top GOP donor — are encouraging Treasurer Stacy Garrity to run for governor in 2026.” They point to her record as the top vote-getter ever for statewide office in Pennsylvania, “her productive time as treasurer returning millions in unclaimed property to Pennsylvanians, and her decades in the U.S. Army Reserves until her retirement as a colonel.” Garrity says she plans to decide “in the next few weeks” whether she will run.
Pa. collected >$164M in natural gas impact fee in ‘24
Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry delivered more than $164 million in impact fee revenue to the state last year, according to information released yesterday by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. The Delaware Valley Journal reports that “while the number is slightly lower than … [the prior] year, it’s yet another reminder of how important the energy sector is to Pennsylvania and its economy.” Last year’s amount was about $15 million below 2023. “This was primarily due to fewer new wells. Only 314 new wells began producing in 2024, compared to 421 in 2023. Because new wells (year-one wells) are subject to the highest impact fee, this can impact annual impact fee revenue. Another reason revenues were flat: the price of natural gas was largely unchanged from 2023, averaging $2.74 per one million British Thermal Units (MBtu).”
Gov.’s mansion gets nearly $400K more in security upgrades
In the two years prior to the April attack on the governor’s mansion, the site had received more than $600,000 in security upgrades. But that wasn’t enough to stop an arsonist from scaling the fence, entering the home, and setting fire to it before escaping. Now, PennLive reports that since the attack, “The Department of General Services approved just over $393,000 in requests for a security assessment, equipment and vehicles from state police, who are charged with protecting the governor.” Much of the spending is shrouded in secrecy, however, as the Shapiro administration refuses to release basic information from the $35,000 security review conducted after the attack. Meanwhile, “House Republicans last month called for transparency on how the assailant was able to slip past security measures already in place when the attack occurred.”
Skill games debate intensifies
As lawmakers debate taxing and regulating games of skill, game developer and distributor Pace-O-Matic is accusing Senate lawmakers of pressuring its lobbyists into dropping the company as a client. Spokespersons for the lawmakers, meanwhile, call the accusation “hypocritical” and note that it’s “difficult to respond to such a bizarre statement.” It gets a bit more bizarre, too, in that behind some of the fighting is an Ohio-based group that’s received money from Citizens Alliance, a national group that has Pa. ties and a record of backing primary challenges to sitting Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania.