Open records reform, property tax cuts top legislative agenda, Jan. 7
Improving access to government documents and cutting school property taxes will be at the top of what House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese pledged Friday would be an aggressive legislative agenda. “When we return to Harrisburg, I believe that we will move aggressively and realize an open records law being signed by the governor before the end of the month (January),” said DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, during a meeting with the Herald-Standard’s Editorial Board.
The open records law governs which documents government officials at all levels must release to the public. The documents range from school board budgets to lawmakers’ expenses.
Lawmakers also plan to debate proposals for increasing the state’s 6 percent sales tax in exchange for lowering school property taxes, he said.
DeWeese said he supports increasing the sales tax to 6.5 percent to produce roughly $750 million in tax cuts.
“(Gov. Ed) Rendell has three more years in office, and there’s nothing he wants to do more for his legacy than reduce or eliminate property taxes,” he added.
If the issues sound familiar, that’s because open records and property tax bills are leftovers lawmakers couldn’t clear from their plates before leaving the Capitol for an extended holiday break in mid-December.
Also unfinished last year was work on legislation banning smoking in bars, restaurants and other public places and Gov. Ed Rendell’s alternative energy and healthcare proposals.
DeWeese plans to resume work on all of those issues after lawmakers return to session Jan. 14.
He blamed last year’s inertia on Republican filibusters.
New House rules intended to make the legislative process more transparent were used by GOP House members to slow down legislation, DeWeese said.
Keeping lawmakers in session an extra day or two to get more work done might be done to thwart the filibusters.
Typically, lawmakers are in session Monday through Wednesday.
“The idea of coming in on Thursday will at least give food for thought to those who want to filibuster,” DeWeese said. “We are going to make the effort to have fewer dairy princesses and wrestling champions (introduced on the House floor) and more strenuous debates.”
Republican stall tactics were one of the reasons the House took so long to adopt revisions to the state’s open records law and send it to the state Senate, DeWeese said.
The Senate did not vote on the bill before leaving the Capitol for an extended holiday break in mid-December.
“The reason it didn’t get done is that the Republicans in the House and Senate wanted to stymie the process,” DeWeese said of the open records legislation. “They did not want us (Democrats) to put any points on the board.”
Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Republican Leader Sam Smith of Punxsutawney, said GOP lawmakers engaged in debates to get answers about the details of the Open Records bill and other legislation Democrats offered.
“That is actually the point and purpose of session; to debate questions and then vote,” Miskin said. “That’s what our members did in the majority and that’s what they are doing in the minority.”
DeWeese said lawmakers may be more motivated than they were last year because every member of the House faces re-election.
“I don’t think the Republicans or Democrats want to have absolutely nothing but legislative reform on their slate,” he said. “It certainly doesn’t do anything to rev up the political base.