Two bills to expand the Human Services Block Grant were slated to move the week of June 10, but did not receive consideration before the weekly recess. Senate Bill 977, sponsored by Sen. Pat Vance (R-Cumberland), which would expand the block grant to any willing and capable county, was pulled from the agenda in the Senate Appropriations Committee after an amendment was offered to expand eligibility of Medicaid pursuant to the Affordable Care Act. However, it is expected that the bill will be back on the agenda when the Senate reconvenes the week of June 17.

In the House, HB 461, sponsored by former CCAP member Rep. Jerry Knowles (R-Schuylkill), was scheduled for second consideration on the House floor on June 12, but was overshadowed by debate and passage of the House budget bill. House Bill 461 would expand the block grant to the ten counties that applied in 2012 but were not selected. The bill has drawn several amendments, one filed by Rep. Matt Baker (R-Tioga) to expand the option to all willing counties (nearly identical to SB 977), as well as several that CCAP opposes, including one to prevent expansion until budget funds are increased, another to prevent expansion until a report by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee is complete, and another to repeal the block grant. To be clear, CCAP supports restoration of dollars for human services programs, but the availability of the block grant is a wholly separate policy issue that is not related to funding levels. A separate amendment dealt with Medicaid eligibility expansion, similar to the amendment proposed to the Senate bill.

CCAP members are asked to remain in ongoing contact with House and Senate members as these bills advance. Further information on the block grant can be found on the CCAP block grant web page and the Legislative Action Center.  

Legislation that will raise $2.5 billion annually for Pennsylvania's transportation and infrastructure needs has been sent to the House after overwhelmingly passing the Senate 45-5. Senate Bill 1, introduced by Senate Transportation Committee chair Sen. John Rafferty (R-Montgomery), mirrors Gov. Corbett's proposal to lift the cap on the oil franchise tax, although in three years rather than five. It generates $700 million more than the governor's $1.8 billion proposal, by adjusting vehicle and driver fees for inflation, charging higher fines for certain traffic violations, and achieving cost savings through modernization of PennDOT services.

The Senate plan allocates $1.9 billion for state and local roads and bridges, $510 million for urban and rural transit agencies, and $115 million for air, rail, ports, and bicycle programs by the fifth year. The legislation addresses many aspects of CCAP's transportation funding and modernization priority.

The General Assembly continues to signal its intent to approve a final transportation funding package before the summer recess. Following Senate passage of SB 1, the House Transportation Committee began a series of hearings on the legislation. CCAP Executive Director Douglas Hill participated in a panel of local government groups at one of the hearings to provide comments on how SB 1 would impact counties, particularly regarding local bridge construction and maintenance, fixed-route and demand-response mass transit, economic development, and next generation initiatives such as bridge bundling.  

The House Children and Youth Committee recently amended and unanimously approved a package of bills to address the recommendations of the Task Force on Child Protection, including updates to the statutory definition of child abuse and changes to how investigations are handled by county agencies.

The legislative package included HB 726, introduced by Rep. Scott Petri (R-Bucks), updating the definition of child abuse; HB 430, introduced by committee chair Rep. Kathy Watson (R-Bucks), providing for internet and email reporting of abuse; HB 433, offered by Rep. Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster), requiring the county children and youth director and solicitor to approve indicated reports of child abuse and offering a specific timeline for appeal; HB 434, introduced by Rep. David Maloney (R-Berks), ensuring school employees are subject to the same investigations and standards as other perpetrators of child abuse; HB 435, introduced by Rep. Dan Moul (R-Adams), addressing background checks for those who work with children; and HB 436, introduced by Rep. Todd Stephens (R-Montgomery), expanding and clarifying the list of mandated reporters of child abuse.

While the combined bills seek a laudable goal, the structural and programmatic changes, as well as diversion of resources to new functions, could have a large fiscal impact on counties. Additional funds are not included as part of the legislation currently under consideration.

At a separate meeting, the committee also gave its approval to Rep. Kerry Benninghoff's (R-Centre) HB 1101. As introduced, the bill clarified the purpose of the statutory language related to children and youth in the Public Welfare Code, permitted intensified educational programs for dependent and delinquent youth under the care of the juvenile court to be a reimbursable cost for counties, and set certain parameters for contracted rates for children and youth services, including a requirement that the county make payment to providers within 30 days or face a one percent penalty. The committee unanimously adopted an amendment eliminating all but the language on contracted rates, as well as removing the one percent penalty language, and then unanimously reported HB 1101 as amended.

Finally, the full House approved two bills introduced by Rep. Moul, on a final vote of 198-0: HB 1075, requiring county children and youth agencies to conduct family finding for children accepted for services, and HB 1076, requiring county agencies to offer family conferencing to all children and families accepted for services.

In the Senate, the Senate Aging and Youth Committee held a hearing on SB 20, introduced by minority chair Sen. LeAnna Washington (D-Philadelphia), which also looks to make changes to the definition of child abuse. Charles Songer, executive director of CCAP affiliate, the Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators Association, provided testimony.  

The House Commerce Committee reported legislation on June 5 to provide a necessary correction regarding the recording of multiple deed assignments or other documents.

A recent Commonwealth Court case held that a county recorder of deeds had a duty to record assignments as prepared and submitted, including assignments covering multiple leases. The decision effectively reduces fees received by the recorder while paradoxically creating additional work in indexing each record. The issue had become more problematic with the increase in the number of multi-assignment recordings that are associated with shale gas drilling activities, whose format can prevent proper indexing altogether.

House Bill 942, introduced by Rep. Sandra Major (R-Susquehanna) would correct the statute to prohibit multiple transactions in the same document, and permit the recorder of deeds to refuse to record any document that does not conform to the standards outlined in the legislation. The change would accurately reflect the effort for the recorder of deeds office to record each transaction.

The committee adopted an amendment offered by committee chairman Rep. Chris Ross (R-Chester) specifying that mortgage assignments are not encompassed by the bill. Two amendments offered by Rep. Curtis Thomas (D-Philadelphia) to address issues of fraudulent deeds and related documents in Philadelphia were withdrawn. The bill was unanimously reported as amended and has been referred to the House Rules Committee. 

On June 5, the House Local Government Committee unanimously reported HB 1230, amending the Real Estate Tax Sale Law to allow county tax claim bureaus to recover at upset sale costs incurred by the county for property rehabilitation and maintenance. The recovery would be prior to other distributions under the law. The change would assist counties in addressing safety and maintenance of the property, or other improvements reasonably necessary to improve the property's sale-ability.

Meeting on June 7, the CCAP Board of Directors adopted an interim resolution amending the PA County Platform to express support for on-line voter registration. The support is conditioned on inclusion of provisions addressing security, signature capture, SURE integration, and election director participation in system development and testing. The interim resolution process permits the Board to adopt policy on matters not contained in the Platform when needed (on-line registration legislation, SB 37, has received Senate approval), subject to ratification by the membership at the next regular CCAP business meeting.