News & Brews July 8, 2025
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State budget hangs on … skill games?
The state budget is now more than a week late. And the Post-Gazette reports that regulating skill games is not only dividing lawmakers of different parties but also dividing lawmakers within the same parties. “Fractures have developed among both Republicans and Democrats over the proposed taxing of skill games, even as top lawmakers see it as a crucial issue in negotiations for a state budget that already is a week overdue,” the P-G notes. Proposals range from no tax on the games to a tax of up to 52%, which Gov. Shapiro projects would raise a few hundred million dollars. As we’ve said before, however, any state budget that does not expand educational opportunity for children trapped in crummy schools is unacceptable, full stop.
(Another) new book: Shapiro’s ‘ambition’ killed his VP chances
Today, another new book comes out on last year’s elections. This one titled 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America (by a trio of journalists from the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, and Washington Post). And yet again, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s naked ambition makes an appearance, as the book “offers new details about how Shapiro’s ambition became a sticking point for the vice president,” the Inquirer reports. Shapiro “came across as overly ambitious,” the book says, “pushing Harris to define what his role would be. He also conceded it would not be natural for him to serve as someone’s number two, leaving Harris with a bad impression.”
GOP lawmakers seek to force vote on Save Women’s Sports Act
In May, the Pa. Senate voted 32-18 in favor of the Save Women’s Sports Act, which would protect girls from being forced to compete in sports against biological males. Despite bipartisan Senate support, however, Democrat state Rep. Peter Schweyer (Lehigh County), who chairs the House Education Committee, has refused to move the bill in his committee. Now, House Republicans, led by Rep. Barb Gleim (Cumberland County), are seeking to force the bill to a floor vote via a discharge resolution. This resolution, which needs a majority of House votes to pass, would bypass Schweyer and bring the bill to the full House for consideration
Pa. law enforcement works with ICE to uphold immigration law
The 287(g) program, enacted under a 1996 federal law, “authorizes ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under the agency’s direction and supervision.” In Pennsylvania, 17 local agencies are participating in the program, and another four have their applications pending approval. (You can download lists of participating agencies here.) Of course, not everyone likes the idea, and the liberal ACLU is not surprisingly among those opposed.
Second Dem lawmaker enters race for Evans seat
State Rep. Chris Rabb plans to run for the Democrat nomination for the Philadelphia congressional seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans. Rabb is the second lawmaker to enter the race, following state Sen. and Pa. Democratic Party Chair Sharif Street. Rabb has called his campaign “unapologetically progressive,” and the Inquirer reports that he “twice won elections without the city’s Democratic establishment support.”