News & Brews July 9, 2025
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Is cutting sales tax exemptions on budget table?
Spotlight PA reports that as budget negotiations drag on, some lawmakers are open to the idea of reviewing the many exemptions to Pennsylvania’s sales tax. Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman said, “There are some exemptions that are more geared toward life-sustaining needs. There are other exemptions that are more geared toward wants. The question is: Is there a balance there that we can find that maybe does generate some revenue to try to be helpful in figuring out how we reconcile this budgetary dynamic?” And House Appropriations Committee Chair Jordan Harris said of his Democrat caucus, “We’re very open to a myriad of options.” Gov. Shapiro, of course, didn’t give an opinion (does he ever, really?).
Philly union ends strike that delivered trash pileup
Early this morning, AFSCME District Council 33 and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration reached an agreement that will end the nine-day strike that led to massive trash pileups around the city. The tentative agreement “means the union’s roughly 9,000 members — blue collar city employees such as trash collectors, street pavers, 911 dispatchers, and other front line workers — will return to work immediately,” the Inquirer reports. Among the details of the three-year contract are “3% raises each year — close to Parker’s demands throughout negotiations and far below the 5% annual increases” the union demanded (and even lower than the 8% the union initially demanded).
Meuser won’t run for governor
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser has announced that he will not run for governor next year, ending speculation that he may enter the race to challenge Gov. Shapiro. Now, the two remaining potential candidates being talked about are Treasurer Stacy Garrity—who holds the record as the top vote getter for statewide office in Pa. and said she will announce a decision soon—and GOP state Sen. Doug Mastriano—who lost decisively to Shapiro in 2022.
‘How labor unions feed campus antisemitism’
Nathan McGrath, president and general counsel of the Fairness Center, a nonprofit law firm that represents those harmed by public-sector unions, has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal detailing how students at public universities have been harassed by labor unions. Their experiences, he writes, “expose a structural problem for Jews at public universities. Join the union and face harassment and discrimination, or leave the union and lose any voice in the workplace.” McGrath writes, “When leaders from UC Berkeley and CUNY testify Wednesday before Congress about discrimination against Jews, lawmakers should confront them about labor unions running amok.”
House Dems derail effort to Save Women’s Sports
After Pa. House Republicans successfully executed a discharge resolution to move the Save Women’s Sports Act out of committee, House Democrats derailed GOP efforts to bring the bill to a vote by instead re-referring it to another committee. The bill, SB 9, sponsored by GOP Sen. Judy Ward, passed the Senate with bipartisan support. But House Democrats would rather force young girls to compete against biological males in sports than listen to the overwhelming voice of their constituents who want to protect girls and women.