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BUDGET HEARINGS BEGIN
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees commenced a three-week series of budget hearings on Feb. 20, giving an opportunity for state agencies to provide detail on the Governor's proposed FY 2018-2019 commonwealth budget. Both the House and Senate began their hearings with an overview from the state's Independent Fiscal Office, which confirmed that while their revenue estimate for FY 2017-2018 is holding up well, it could be impacted by the status of the legal challenge to the $200 million transfer from the Joint Underwriting Association to the state's general fund, and by the long-term impact from federal tax law changes. The state's economy also appears to be in a good position, but there are some concerns regarding recent weak sales tax collections and inflation. The IFO will also begin working with state agencies on performance-based budgeting, in conjunction with the Secretary of the Budget, pursuant to Act 48 of 2017, determining metrics and reaching out to other stakeholders as well as the state agencies.
Several items of importance to counties have been discussed during the hearings to date, including a county priority to prevent substance abuse and drug overdose.. The impacts of the opioid crisis was noted specifically by several agencies, including Attorney General (and former Montgomery County commissioner) Josh Shapiro and Department of Corrections secretary John Wetzel. Secretary Wetzel also reported to the House Appropriations Committee that his agency has partnered with CCAP to encourage counties to engage in the Stepping Up Initiative, a national initiative to help advance counties' efforts to reduce the number of adults with mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders in jails.
Also of note, Attorney General Shapiro told the Senate Appropriations Committee that while reimbursements to counties for district attorney salaries have not been keeping pace or made timely, he anticipates the state will be fully caught up by 2019 as the fee corrects the prior shortfall and cash flow issue. Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Robert Torres further shared with Senate members that funding will be needed for counties to purchase new voting machines, noting that Gov. Wolf has asked Pennsylvania's Congressional delegation to support appropriation of federal dollars, and cited CCAP's priority to support funding for voting systems as well.
The House held a budget hearing on combatting the opioid crisis with the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) on March 1, and more details will be provided in the March 16 edition of the Bulletin. The House Appropriations Committee will also hold its hearing with the Department of Human Services (DHS) on March 6, while the Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing with the Department of Aging the same day, as well as hearings with DHS and DOH on March 7, and with DDAP on March 8.
Additional information and analysis of the Governor's budget proposal is available on CCAP's Budget News and Updates web page, including a spreadsheet of the proposed funding levels for county line items.
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STUDY RELEASED ON RIGHT-TO-KNOW COSTS
On Feb. 27, the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee (LBFC) released a comprehensive review of the annual costs to state and local agencies of administering the Right-to-Know Law (RTKL), as required by HR 50 of 2017. The report found that state and local agencies received an estimated 109,000 RTKL requests in 2016, with the total cost of compliance to all state and local agencies estimated to range from $5.7 million to $9.7 million. About 54 percent of the agencies surveyed reported an annual cost below $500 to administer the law in 2016, with the median annual costs among counties responding to the survey at $8,000.
Commercial requests from out of state entities, requests related to litigation, and inmate requests were identified as the most "burdensome"; however the LBFC found there is little consensus among agencies on how time-consuming a RTKL request must be for it to be considered overly burdensome, suggesting that the issue is more directly related to concerns about the type of request being made or who is making the request than the time involved. About 70 percent of all agencies contacted were deemed to be not compliant with the requirement to post their RTKL procedures on their websites or in their offices, although state government agencies and counties were the most compliant and already published much of the commonly requested information on their public websites.
The study makes a number of recommendations to amend the RTKL, such as requiring the contact information for the open records officer be sent to the state's Office of Open Records at least annually and posting the same in a prominent location their websites. Further, the LBFC recommended requiring all open records officers to take Office of Open Records training on an annual basis, and authorizing the Office to establish reasonable hourly fees for commercial and/or other time-consuming requests.
The full LBFC report can be found at lbfc.legis.state.pa.us. In addition, a similar survey was released by the Office of Open Records in January, which can be found at openrecords.pa.gov, under the blog feed.
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HOUSE MEMBERS PROPOSE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY
Several House members, including Reps. Seth Grove (R-York), Stephen Bloom (R-Cumberland), Mathew Dowling (R-Fayette), former Wayne County commissioner Jonathan Fritz (R-Susquehanna), Justin Walsh (R-Westmoreland), and Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster), recently announced a proposal to restructure several existing state agencies, including the creation of a Department of Local Government and Community Affairs. The proposed agency would take responsibility for several functions of the current Department of Community and Economic Development's Center for Local Government Services, as well as the administration of elections and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, both now under the purview of the Department of State. The representatives indicated the merger would be intended to create one point of contact for local governments related to these programs, along with grants and tax credit programs.
In addition, the plan includes a proposed Department of Business, Tourism and Workforce Development to consolidate the state's workforce development systems from the current departments of Labor and Industry and Human Services as well as DCED. This agency would also incorporate DCED's marketing and tourism programs and the Department of State's licensing oversight. Another proposal would bring the functions of the Department of General Services, Office of Administration and the Governor's Office of Policy and Planning into the Office of Management and Budget to oversee budget preparation and manage state expenditures along with handling human resources and information technology. Finally, the plan includes a merger of the departments of Health and Human Services, as has been recommended by Gov. Wolf in his FY 2018-2019 budget address.
While the formal legislation has not yet been introduced, the legislators indicated that they are seeking to create an easier-to-navigate government while also modernizing the agencies in the commonwealth.
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SENATE ADVANCES PROTZ FIX
The Senate Labor and Industry Committee recently reported SB 963 to address a June 2017 state Supreme Court ruling in Protz v. Worker's Compensation Appeals Board that invalidated a tool available under the state's Workers' Compensation Law to cap exposure on long-term workers' compensation claims. In that ruling, the Court determined that the Impairment Rating Evaluation (IRE) process was unconstitutional because the standards for evaluating a worker's degree of impairment are statutorily tied to the most recent version of American Medical Association guidelines and are therefore an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority. Senate Bill 963, introduced by committee chair and former CCAP member Sen. Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland), will address the section invalidated by the Supreme Court and re-enact language to clarify the guidelines to be used for IREs.
The committee voted 8-4 to advance the legislation, with Republican members voting in favor and Democratic members in the negative, and SB 963 is now before the full Senate for consideration. Similar legislation, HB 1840, introduced by Rep. Rob Kauffman (R-Franklin), has also been introduced in the House of Representatives.
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COMMITTEE MOVES ASSESSMENT REFORM BILL
In late January, the Senate Local Government Committee unanimously reported SB 950
, offered by former Blair County commissioner Sen. John Eichelberger (R-Blair), to establish a voluntary real estate sales verification form pilot program for counties. The bill was developed by the Local Government Commission's Assessment Reform Task Force, with which CCAP and its affiliate, the Assessors' Association of Pennsylvania, are actively involved
The pilot program under SB 950, in which counties could choose to participate by resolution, would be used to determine whether the use of a uniform form would assist county assessors in verifying sales data and result in more accurate data collection. Real estate sales data are used in Pennsylvania for several purposes, such as the development of the common level ratio and school funding formulas. Counties are currently required to provide the Tax Equalization Division (previously referred to as the State Tax Equalization Board, or STEB) with information about all transfers and conveyances of real estate on an annual basis. However, there is no standard form for verifying or submitting this sales data, which can lead to inconsistencies.
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VOTING MATTERS
CCAP members will elect the two CCAP representatives to the NACo Board of Directors at the business meeting to be held during Tuesday's closing session of the CCAP Spring Conference. The Conference takes place March 18-20 at the Hilton Harrisburg, and features meetings of standing policy committees and numerous educational sessions.
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