Public transit funding, utility protections, and more top Pa. legislature’s fall to-do list

Funding public transit, reauthorizing utility shut-off protections, and agreeing on new rules for hospitals are all at the top of the legislature’s priority list when it returns to Harrisburg later this month.

Just over a dozen voting days are scheduled before the end of the current two-year legislative session, all in the shadow of the upcoming presidential election.

Bills that aren’t passed by both chambers by the end of this year must start the legislative process from scratch when the new session starts in January.

While state legislators and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro passed a bipartisan budget deal in July that included a major increase for K-12 education funding and long-sought permitting reforms, compromise on other issues remained elusive within the divided General Assembly.

The chances of some key measures advancing in the last weeks of session — from a minimum wage increase to relief for child sexual abuse survivors — are low amid partisan distrust and election-year politicking.

But some less politicized issues could receive bipartisan support as lawmakers up for reelection finalize their closing pitch to voters, according to legislative leaders and other Capitol sources.

“We got a lot of other work to do,” Shapiro told reporters last month.

In the year’s remaining session days, starting when the state Senate returns on Sept. 16, expect to see debates on the following issues.

Is taxing skill games the path to more transit funding?

At the top of the list for fall is reaching a compromise on funding the commonwealth’s 50-plus public transit agencies, from SEPTA’s sprawling commuter rail network to rural medical transit services, all of which face budget deficits as pandemic subsidies dry up.

But finding a solution within the divided General Assembly will likely require solving another politically thorny issue: the regulation and taxation of skill games, slot machine-like devices that have proliferated in recent years in bars, restaurants, stores, and social clubs.

Currently, the state gives transit agencies about $2 billion in aid each year, mostly from state sales tax revenue. In his February budget address, Shapiro called for $283 million in new funding starting this year.

However, state Senate Republicans, reluctant to up spending, agreed to a one-time, $80 million boost in the final budget deal after a last-minute push by Philadelphia legislators. The legislature used surplus dollars to fund the spending.

“We didn't get what we anticipated, what we were hoping for and fighting for,” state Rep. Morgan Cephas (D., Philadelphia) told reporters in July, “but at the very least, this down payment is the start of a conversation.”

Transit agencies said the funding was just a stopgap. In the meantime, they’re trying to balance their budgets through other approaches. SEPTA announced last week that it would effectively raise fares for tens of thousands of riders by eliminating a 50 cent discount for paying with a card instead of cash.

So how do skill games fit into the picture? State Senate Republicans have placed some big conditions on supporting new transit funding, and one is finding a new revenue source.

“I cannot fathom any way we can address [transit funding] under our existing revenue streams,” state Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) told Spotlight PA last month, echoing a point he’s made since June. “And from my vantage point, the only area of significant revenue that I've heard some degree of consensus on is the need to regulate games of skill.”

In a statement this week praising SEPTA’s decision to raise some of its fares, Pittman also noted another condition for Republicans. Any new investment in SEPTA must be coupled with road and bridge spending across the state, he said, arguing that it’s hard to ask rural constituents “to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into mass transit.”

“If we're going to deal with both issues, we need a new revenue stream which will not place additional pressure on the General Fund,” he said, referencing Pennsylvania’s checking account.

But despite the promise of $150 million or more in revenue, the legislature has not advanced a skill games bill, as skill games operators and casino interests have spent millions of dollars lobbying for and against it.

Legislative proposals on the issue range from lenient rules and taxation to an outright ban. The measures are often sponsored by lawmakers who report gifts or big money campaign checks from the very groups they are attempting to regulate.

In a statement, state House Democratic spokesperson Elizabeth Rementer said the caucus is willing to talk about a way forward on skill games that balances the needs of social clubs that benefit financially with the existing casino industry while “preventing underage and problem gambling.”

It’s a tricky issue for lawmakers from Philadelphia, where City Council passed an ordinance restricting skill game terminals to bars and restaurants. Cephas, chair of the city’s legislative delegation, said she wants any legislation regulating skill games to give Philadelphia the freedom to make its own rules.

An expiring utility lifeline

The state House and Senate are also pressed to reauthorize a key piece of state law that regulates how utilities treat customers struggling to keep up with their electric or gas bills.

The provision, also known as Chapter 14, was created 20 years ago to establish standards and procedures for utilities to collect unpaid bills and terminate service for delinquent customers to help keep rates down across the board. The law also added a few consumer protections, such as a ban on shutting off utilities during the winter.

The law expires every ten years and must be renewed by the end of 2024.

In recent years, advocates for the state’s poorest consumers have argued that by allowing utility companies to tack additional fees, fines, and deposits onto low-income customers’ bills, the law has become more punitive than protective.

A bill introduced in the state House folded in some of the advocates’ suggestions, including proposed bans on summer utility shut-offs and reconnection fees for low-income customers, as well as an extension of medical waivers that protect vulnerable customers’ utility access from 30 to 90 days. It currently sits in committee.

The state Senate, meanwhile, has already passed a bill that would reauthorize Chapter 14 and includes modest changes such as more time between a shut-off notice and losing service, and allowing for longer repayment plans. It would also allow medical waivers to last for 60 days.

State House Democrats, state Senate Republicans, and the Shapiro administration have all said the issue is a priority.

"We continue to work in good faith with the Senate and stakeholders on a compromise that balances consumer protections and availability of these essential utilities,” Rementer, the Democratic spokesperson, said in a statement.

Shapiro has publicly signaled support for parts of the lower chamber’s bill. Tucked into the bottom of a release about an unrelated energy proposal this spring, the administration said it supports “commonsense protections for consumers against unfair practices” such as “excessive reconnection fees” and greater access to medical waivers.

The expanded consumer protections are opposed by utility companies’ main lobby, the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, which argues the bills will give more leverage to customers who are behind on payments and lead to increased costs for all consumers. According to data from the Public Utility Commission — which regulates hundreds of providers across the state — gas and electric utilities wrote off $187 million due to nonpayment in 2022, out of a total of $11.2 billion they billed residential customers for services.

Absent action, the law will expire on Dec. 31. If that happens, the Public Utility Commission will have to step in and develop new rules to regulate shut-offs while protections — such as the ban on winter utility disconnections — would go away.

“It is our strong preference that the House and Senate reach a reasonable compromise and reauthorize the law rather than require the affected parties to go through another lengthy, difficult process at the PUC,” Terrance Fitzpatrick, president of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, told Spotlight PA in an email.

Proposals target hospital staffing, transparency

Since the start of session last year, the Democratic-controlled state House has passed a half dozen bills that would tighten hospital regulations, all with bipartisan support.

That includes a union-backed proposal to cap the number of patients that each hospital nurse attends to, another that would give the state attorney general more power to block hospital mergers, and one that would mandate hospitals publicly release their prices for all procedures and services.

The staffing proposal is a top priority for the nurses’ trade association and labor unions, including the influential SEIU, which represents thousands of Pennsylvania nurses and contributes millions of dollars to Democrats’ campaign coffers.

The proposal’s backers argue it’ll prevent burnout in the already strained nursing workforce and lead to better outcomes for hospital patients. They also argue that decreased readmissions and shorter hospital stays will make up for additional staff costs.

The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, however, opposes the measure. In a letter to lawmakers last year, the powerful advocacy arm for the state’s hospitals said staffing ratios will lead to fewer open beds if not the outright closure of some facilities, particularly in rural areas.

The 240-member association employs four lobbying firms and has spent almost $2.4 million to reach lawmakers since the start of 2023. Its members, from giants like UPMC to smaller regional hospital networks, have separately spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach legislators.

In a statement, association Chief Executive Nicole Stallings said that legislators “need to focus on the causes, not the symptoms” and instead address structural issues such as workforce shortages and “persistent underpayment” for medical services “across payers.”

The state Senate has been slow to take up many of the state House’s hospital bills, but not altogether unwilling. During the summer, for instance, the upper chamber overwhelmingly approved a bill banning noncompete clauses for some medical professionals' employment contracts. Shapiro signed it into law in July.

Pittman declined to comment on the nurse staffing bill, but told Spotlight PA that the hospital pricing bill “has merit.”

The latter is sponsored by a mix of progressive Democrats and Freedom Caucus Republicans and is backed by conservative groups such as Americans for Prosperity.

“Transparency,” Pittman said of the proposal, “is always a positive for the consumer.”

90.5 WESA partners with Spotlight PA, a collaborative, reader-funded newsroom producing accountability journalism for all of Pennsylvania. More at spotlightpa.org.