PBA Priority Legislation-November 2008
Below please find the latest information on PBA priority and non-priority legislation. October 8 was the last day of session. The House and Senate may come back for a few days after the election for “house cleaning” items (signing bills, concurring with votes), but we are not expecting any more issues of interest to PBA to move after the election.
Priority Legislation
Senate Bill 2:
This bill creates the H2O PA Act, giving the Commonwealth Financing Authority $800 million for water and sewer, storm water, flood protection and dam safety projects. Rep. DePasquale offered an amendment in the House Environmental committee, supported by PBA, PMAA and DEP, which would provide sewage treatment plants with the option of using funds made available to them under the bill to purchase nutrient credits, with the intention of therefore encouraging the use of the trading program. This amendment was adopted. However, during the final days of the legislative session, an amendment agreed to by the governor’s office and the Senate Republican leadership stripped out the language supported by PBA. The bill passed the House and Senate and is now Act 63 of 2008.
Senate Bill 1341:
This bill would provide for a voter referendum on $400 million in borrowing for water and sewer projects. One category of eligibility for projects is the reduction of nutrients and sediment to comply with the Tributary Strategy. Rep. DePasquale offered a similar amendment as the one for SB 2, providing sewage treatment plants with the option of using funds made available to them under the bill to purchase nutrient credits, with the intention of therefore encouraging the use of the trading program. This amendment was retained in SB 1341 and was approved by the House and Senate and is now Act 64 of 2008.
These bills create the Home Improvement Contractor Registration Act. At the end of June, Senator Tomlinson, prime sponsor of SB 100, and Rep. McCall, prime sponsor of HB 507, held discussions over which of these pieces of legislation would move prior to the summer break. Senate Bill 100 was the bill to move, and was passed by the House and Senate with only amendments we approved. The Governor is expected to sign the bill this week. The effective date of this legislation is July 1, 2009. PBA will be doing training for those locals who wish to learn more, as well as creating a model contract for members to use.
This bill amends the PA Construction Code Act by establishing a technical review and advisory committee made up of experts in all fields related to the design, construction and inspection of buildings. This council is balanced, additionally, with municipal representatives. The council is charged with reviewing proposed changes to the International Code Council’s family of codes before they are adopted for use in Pennsylvania by the Department of Labor and Industry. This bill finally passed the General Assembly on the last day of session. It is Act 106 of 2008.
This bill amends the Municipalities Planning Code. Senator Regola amended this legislation in the Senate Local Government committee with 3 of PBA’s MPC fix it list amendments. This bill did not end up moving during the last days of session.
This bill also amends the Municipalities Planning Code. PBA was able to get 2 additional MPC fixes amended into the legislation in the Senate Local Government Committee. These amendments clarify the process for a land development applicant to obtain a determination from a zoning hearing officer that his proposed development complies with the zoning ordinance and zoning map prior to submitting an application for development approval. Further the amendments require the zoning officer to issue a written preliminary opinion within 30 days of a written request for the opinion. This bill was held over because Rep. Freeman (the bill’s sponsor) opposed the PBA amendments. Only bills that were agreed to moved in the House and Senate during their final days.
This bill creates the Data Quality Act. The main obstacle is the administration, despite PBA’s willingness to compromise, the Governor and his staff are unwilling to support the bill. PBA launched a PR and Grassroots campaign, however unfortunately, the email messages, along with the radio ads and op-ed campaign were not sufficient to sway the Governor on this issue at this time.
Non-priority legislation:
This bill creates the Scrap Materials Theft Prevention Act. This bill requires scrap processors and recycling facility operators to collect information when they purchase scrap material exceeding $100, involves a catalytic converter, or other restricted materials listed in the act. They would need to get a photocopy of the driver’s license of the seller, the seller’s and buyer’s signature for each transaction, the license plate number of the vehicle the seller operates at the time of the transaction, the date and time of the transaction, and a description o the scrap material included in the transaction, including the weight of the scrap material and the amount paid to the seller. After putting together a coalition of more than 50 organizations, we were able to move this bill, over opposition from the scrap dealers association, through the Senate and then back to the House for concurrence. It is now Act 113 of 2008.
SB 1291 and HB 2445 (identical) create the Neighborhood Blight Reclamation and Revitalization Act. PBA is a member of a coalition, headed by the PA Association of Realtors, working on amendments to both pieces of legislation. Hearings were held in the House and Senate in June. These bills gained some momentum in the closing days of session, but after opposition by PAR and PBA, these bills did not pass.
Creates the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act. PBA is a member of a coalition, headed by the PA Association of Realtors, working on amendments to this piece of legislation. This bill was fast-tracked at the end of the session – but PBA, along with coalition partners, were able to postpone movement of this bill until September, in order to get additional needed amendments.Those needed amendments were added and the bill was poised to pass, however, nothing was done on the last day. It sits in House Rules for concurrence – and may pass when the House returns after the election.
This is a three-bill package draft by the PHFA and supported by the Housing Alliance, PAR and coalition of other housing organizations, creates the Foreclosure Relief and Affordable Housing Initiative. This also includes the Housing trust fund portion of the legislation. House bills 2600, 2601, 2602 are identical to the above Senate bills and were introduced at a press conference attended by PBA. In September, Gary Lenker testified in support of these bills. Senate and House bills passed their respective chambers but due to an argument between the prime sponsors over whose bill should become law, no bill passed.
Creates the Construction Industry Independent Contractor Act. This legislation creates a stricter definition for subcontractor and establishes strict penalties for misclassifying employees as subcontractors. This bill is seriously flawed and the GA staff, along with a host of other interested coalition partners, are actively trying to stop this bill. The coalition attempted to amend this legislation to make it more palatable, however, the amendment was not considered and we sent letters to the House urging them to vote no on this legislation. This bill passed over PBA and coalition opposition, but it is being held up in the Senate committee. This bill was never considered by the Senate committee.
