David Spett

HARRISBURG (Nov. 20) – When compared to other states, taxes and spending in Pennsylvania aren’t very high, according to a new study from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.

“Unlike what we hear in the Capitol, Pennsylvania is not the highest-taxed state or the highest spending state,” said Sharon Ward, director of the left-leaning think tank. “In fact, we are in the lower half of the country. We rank 32nd [highest] on taxes and 30th on government spending, as a share of personal income.”

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HARRISBURG (Nov. 19) – The Civil Service Commission is violating “the spirit of the law” by not enforcing the Veterans’ Preference Program, which requires state agencies to give preference to qualified veterans applying for civil service jobs, Auditor General Jack Wagner said at a news conference Wednesday.

Wagner’s agency released an audit finding that from the three-year period ending in mid-2006, “25 state agencies filled 569 civil service employment positions without considering eligible veterans.”

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HARRISBURG (Nov. 18) – Pennsylvania’s system of funding special education isn’t broken, but it still could benefit from changes, a state official testified Tuesday.

“We’d be very open to working to reform the special education funding system, but is our system broken? No,” said John Tommasini, director of the state’s Bureau of Special Education.

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HARRISBURG (Nov. 18) – Attorney Chris Hobbs, 36, the son-in-law of the late Sen. James Rhoades, R-Schuylkill, said Tuesday that he is definitely in the running for the 29th senatorial district seat.

Rhoades, who had been in the state Senate since 1981, was reelected on Nov. 4 after a fatal car crash in October while he was on his way to a high school sporting event.

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HARRISBURG (Nov. 17) – Several individuals on both sides of the aisle say they are either running or considering a run in a special election to fill the seat of state Sen. James Rhoades, R-Schuylkill.

After dying in a car crash in October, Rhoades was posthumously reelected with 63 percent of the vote on Election Day. He defeated Democrat Peter “P.J.” Symons, the Schuylkill County prothonotary, who received 35 percent, and independent candidate Dennis Baylor, who received 2 percent of the vote.

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HARRISBURG (Nov. 13) – A top Department of Education official faced a barrage of criticism Thursday over the state’s plan to overhaul elementary and middle school teacher training.

The plan will step up requirements for students seeking teaching certifications and for the teachers who train them. Instead of the current system of one certification for all teachers of kindergarten through sixth grade, the new guidelines offer separate certifications for teachers of pre-kindergarten through fourth grade and fifth through eighth grade. The guidelines also require that all teachers receive special education training.

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HARRISBURG (Nov. 12) – Health care providers and insurers sparred at a roundtable discussion with the House Insurance Committee Wednesday about the potential effects of a “Blues merger” between Highmark, Inc. and Independence Blue Cross.

Kenneth Melani and Joseph Frick, president and CEO of Highmark and Independence, respectively, said a merger would allow their companies to eliminate inefficiencies and generate cost savings for consumers in turn.

But numerous critics said the merger would result in less competition among insurers and higher premiums for Pennsylvanians.

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HARRISBURG (Nov. 7) – The Independent Regulatory Review Commission disapproved a proposed set of regulations Thursday that would have shaped the statute defining the state’s new lobbyist disclosure requirements.

A 2006 bill set the regulatory process in motion when it became law. The proposed regulations would have required individuals to register with the state as soon as they received at least $2,500 for lobbying services, even if they had not lobbied.

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HARRISBURG (Nov. 4) – Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, has fought off a strong challenge from Democrat Judy Hirsh and will retain his seat in the 15th senatorial district.

Piccola beat Hirsh in Dauphin County by 2,576 votes, with all 135 precincts reporting. He earned 57,875 votes in total compared to Hirsh’s 55,299.

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HARRISBURG & SUSQUEHANNA TWP. (Nov. 2) – State Senate candidate Judy Hirsh canvassed well past sundown Sunday, telling anyone who would answer the door that she wants “to bring new energy and new ideas to the Legislature.”

Responses varied from expressions of disinterest to pledges to vote for her opponent to jubilation over seeing a face that has blanketed television ads in the past month and a half.

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