News & Brews September 2, 2026
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Lawmakers want to repeal data center tax break—but haven’t
PennLive reports that five years after the Legislature voted (with bipartisan support) to give data centers a break from the 6% sales tax, lawmakers want to repeal the special favor. But despite bipartisan support in both chambers, they can’t agree on actually doing it.
The House passed a repeal bill, which the Senate has not taken up. Meanwhile, the Senate amended a House bill with the repeal as well as other items on other topics. The House then added its own amendments, which the Senate won’t agree to. But here’s the thing: Because each chamber has technically passed legislation repealing the tax break, lawmakers can campaign on their votes, even if they haven’t actually accomplished the goal that supposedly lots of them share.
Shapiro agrees to one debate; Garrity wants more
State Treasurer Stacy Garrity has accepted invitations to two debates in her challenge to Gov. Josh Shapiro—hosted by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. And she has been pushing for even more debates. Shapiro’s campaign, meanwhile, has not addressed these two debate invitations but yesterday, his campaign announced that he has accepted one debate invitation from ABC27.
Dems embrace out-of-state donations
Broad + Liberty reports that two Democrats vying for state Senate—Chris Thomas, challenging GOP Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (Berks & Montgomery counties), and Eileen Albillar, challenging GOP Sen. Frank Farry (Bucks County)—are “asking out-of-state individuals to help fund their campaigns.”
Thomas’s recent fundraising report “shows $66,150.73 from individual donors outside Pennsylvania, with the overwhelming majority coming from the San Francisco Bay Area…. Thomas reported just $7,354 from individual donors residing within the 24th Senate District….”
This out-of-state funding is nothing new. In the 2020, 2022, and 2024 elections, the largest single donor to the Pennsylvania House Democrat Campaign Committee was the PAC for America’s Future, which received more than 97% of its money from outside of Pennsylvania—including from out-of-state millionaires and billionaires. And since 2020 more than half of Gov. Shapiro’s itemized donations have come from outside Pennsylvania—including nearly 60% in 2025.
Who sees themselves as ‘working class’?
New data from the Pew Research Center is interesting for its political implications. Pew reports that “most Americans think of themselves as ‘working class’ today: Overall, 60% of U.S. adults say the term describes them well. And the identity is widely adopted by people across all income and educational groups – including half of both Americans who have a bachelor’s degree and those who are upper income.”
Pew continues: “Overall, 67% of Republicans and Republican leaners say ‘working class’ describes them well, as do 55% of Democrats.” Because “working class” has come to have many meanings and perceptions among Americans, Pew says that “some political figures — particularly on the left —have been pressed to explain who they are including when they invoke the term.”
About the House vote condemning socialism
I’m all for condemning socialism. But recent headlines leave something out. Per the headlines, only eight Democrats joined Republicans to vote in favor of a House resolution denouncing socialism.
This is true. However, as The Hill reports, “the resolution also contained a measure calling for the passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act.” Most Democrats oppose the Save America Act, so would not vote in favor of it.
A better indicator would be last year’s vote on a single subject resolution denouncing socialism. In that vote a lot of Dems voted to condemn socialism. But 98 decided to go on the record refusing to condemn the horrors of socialism, including four from Pennsylvania: Democrats Summer Lee, Dwight Evans, Madeleine Dean, and Mary Gay Scanlon.
