News & Brews September 25, 2025
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Garrity offers counties loans amid budget impasse
Yesterday, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity announced a $500 million loan program available to counties and pre-school providers who are in financial limbo given the state budget impasse. PennLive reports that the money will “come out of treasury account 999, the liquid asset pool that makes short-term investments with the state’s day-to-day operating cash. That account’s balance is about $21.3 billion.” Counties would have to repay the loans, at a 4.5% interest rate, beginning 15 days after the state budget is finally signed.
DNC starts spending in Pa. Supreme Court race
The Hill reports that yesterday, the Democratic National Committee announced “that it’s making a six-figure investment in Pennsylvania voter contact efforts ahead of three critical state Supreme Court elections.” The spending “comes just weeks before elections to determine whether state Supreme Court Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht will be retained for new 10-year terms or rejected.” While judges rarely lose retention, this race has drawn high attention as Democrats control the court 5-2. “If all three justices are rejected, Republicans could flip control of the court in a top swing state.”
U.S. Steel plans $100M upgrade in Braddock
The Post-Gazette reports that yesterday, U.S. Steel announced it will spend $100 million to upgrade its Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, along with an additional $200 million to upgrade the company’s Gary Works in Indiana. Here in Pa., the money “will be used for a new slag recycler, a machine that can make use of the byproducts of steel production, including providing ingredients for cement.” These two upgrades represent “a portion of Nippon Steel’s $11 billion commitment to upgrading U.S. Steel facilities — part of its overall $14.9 billion acquisition of the Downtown Pittsburgh-based steelmaker.”
Time to end the Separations Act?
Jon O’Brien, executive director of the Keystone Contractors Association, writes in the Post-Gazette that a 1913 Pennsylvania law is forcing the state to “waste millions of dollars every year on outdated construction mandates.” That law—the Separations Act—”requires public construction projects to use multiple prime contractors: one for general construction, another for electrical, another for plumbing, and another for HVAC.” O’Brien writes, “This might sound like accountability. In practice, it creates duplication, inefficiency, finger-pointing, and costly delays.”
That’s a good question…
And lastly, a news release this week from the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) noted that senior DCED officials are in Ireland this week as part of the Shapiro administration’s 10-year Economic Development Strategy. Coincidentally (or not), the trip coincides with the Steelers v. Vikings game to be played in Ireland. But as the Commonwealth Foundation’s Nate Benefield asks, “With no state budget in place, who is paying for state government officials to take a trip to Ireland?” Indeed … that’s a good question.