No Legislative Action on Major Issues

The House and Senate completed their week in Harrisburg without making progress on any major issues.
Resolutions marking a week in September “Miles of Pillowcase Smiles Week,” creating “Eunice Kennedy Shriver Day” and making October “Parent Involvement Month” are some of the actions the House and Senate approved this week.
The chambers also passed bills changing laws related to wills and estates; and borough, township and county codes – but didn’t take action on any of the major issues facing them such as severance tax, pension reform, transportation funding or any other high-profile legislation.
Tim Potts of government reform group Democracy Rising PA says he’s disappointed, but not surprised.

"You’ve got these enormous issues that have tremendous potential for good and ill in Pennsylvania. And yet they still are unprepared to deal with them. We’re paying 30-thousand dollars a day for per diems for these guys. The least they can do is show up ready to work."

Governor Rendell remains optimistic a severance tax will clear the House this month.
He says he’s working with Democratic leaders to hash out differences on how the revenue would be distributed. However, the bigger stumbling block for a severance tax is the rate of the levy.