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State Politicians Screwing Philly
Yesterday, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed legislation that will require abortion clinics to spend millions of dollars on renovations that are not medically necessary or shut down, and the Senate is expected to follow suit today before breaking for the holidays. The transparent bid to drive abortion clinics out of business would require them to meet the standards of “ambulatory surgical facilities” that perform far more complicated and risky operations.
No medical association supports the legislation and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes it. This bill is unambiguously about the political movement to criminalize abortion.
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This afternoon, the state Senate passed — without debate, without a public hearing, and with a single dissenting vote — the insidious SB 1469, which will basically allow local governments to slink further away from the spirit of the hard-fought Right to Know Act the legislature passed in 2008. And seeing how our own city leaders handle public records requests, this is not at all confidence inspiring. Among other things, this bill will allow the fine folks at City Hall and other local agencies to charge you up to 12 1/2 cents per page just to look — not to copy, but to look — at public records.
Want to take a gander at, say, the city's contracts with its labor unions? Or maybe a city budget? How about some personnel files, or the Internal Affairs files of dirty cops? Bring your checkbook: Those things can run into the hundreds of pages. And that's exactly the point, despite Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi's disingenuous claim that this bill would only address procedural problems, or whatever.
Another âprocedural problemâ: The bill would also narrow the citizenry's ability to obtain records about government contractors — you know, like the kind the state recently contracted with the spy on activists.
The bill now goes to the House, which is also considering its own affront to the Right to Know Act, a bill that would exempt government workers' dates of birth and home addresses from public records, as Social Security numbers are already exempted. Of course, these are also the types of info newspapers often use to sort out different people with the same name. As Deborah Musselman, director of government affairs at the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, tells us, âEliminating these identifiers from public view could result in an innocent person being wrongly associated with criminal case records.â
The House bill is currently in appropriations. Hopefully it stays there. And hopefully the House — which has had more than its share of corruption problems of late — recognizes that the last thing this state needs is a weakened public records law, and dumps this thing. OK, maybe we keep the good parts of the bill, like the part the requires state agencies to produce records in the requested format, and the part that expands access to drafts prepared at public meetings. But the rest of it needs to go.
Sunshine, as they say, is the best disinfectant; sadly, our leaders are all too happy to live in the shadows.
More on this in A Million Stories this week.
*With reporting by Holly Otterbein.
Getting to public records in Philly is already a sad joke. This is FUBAR.
Governor Ed Rendell says he expects a clause in the pending table game legislation — one that would allow PA casinos to extend credit to their customers, whether they're playing table games or just slots — to die before reaching his desk. In a phone conference today, Rendell referred to that clause and others as "ancillary," and said, "I think a lot of that stuff is going to go out of the bills before it gets to me." Pressed on the issue of casino credit specifically, Rendell said, "I don't think that will survive the final bill — but if it did, I would have to sign it. That's not a core issue for me." Listen to the exchange here: [audio:http://stream.citypaper.net/music/edrendell_tablegames_30oct09.mp3]
The General Assembly is supposed to reconvene on Monday, Nov. 9 to settle the issue. Meanwhile, we noticed that today's Inquirer editorialized against the credit clause:
Even when Pennsylvania's flawed gaming bill was passed in the dark of night in 2004, the legislature had enough sense to prohibit the extension of in-store credit. Why back off now? The gaming industry says it needs to be able to provide credit to the high rollers expected once the slots parlors morph. But the credit access will also be there for problem gamblers and those who can least afford it. That's especially troubling in Philadelphia, where about a quarter of the population lives in poverty and many are on the edge.
Casino can easily fix everything. I am sure because gaming industry is growing continuously.
Interesting. And in today's Post-Gazette, Dan Onorato (county executive for Allegheny County/Pittsburgh) proposed using the revenue from table games to pay for Pittsburgh libraries (since we are being forced to close so many, due to declining county revenues). Dan Onorato is running for Governor of Pennsylvania. They think casinos will fix everything. Oops...forgot to say great post! Looking forward to your next one.
Interesting. And in today's Post-Gazette, Dan Onorato (county executive for Allegheny County/Pittsburgh) proposed using the revenue from table games to pay for Pittsburgh libraries (since we are being forced to close so many, due to declining county revenues). Dan Onorato is running for Governor of Pennsylvania. They think casinos will fix everything.
[...] AUDIO: Rendell suggests casino credit will die, concedes itâs not a ‘core issue’…... [...]
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