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Number 26
December 27, 2013

www.pacounties.org

LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN

An e-newsletter of the County Commissioners

Association of Pennsylvania

Serving Counties Since 1886

In This Issue

CCAP 2013 Priorities Year-End Status Report

Human Services Funding and Further System Reform

Assessment Reform

Funding and Modernization Solutions for Transportation

Maintaining and Improving 911 Services

Inmates with Mental Illness and Substance Abuse Issues

Shale Gas Impacts

Prevailing Wage Reform

Restoration of County Recycling Fees

Accreditation of County Directors of Veterans' Affairs

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CCAP 2013 PRIORITIES YEAR-END STATUS REPORT

CCAP members identified a total of nine priority legislative and regulatory issues for 2013. Following a formal announcement in February, staff launched efforts to have bills introduced and moving through the legislative process. This end-of-year status report is presented in priority order, as established by CCAP members.

HUMAN SERVICES FUNDING AND FURTHER SYSTEM REFORM

On June 30, the Governor signed HB 1437, containing the FY 2013-2014 state budget, into law. The spending plan largely held county human services line items to FY 2012-2013 levels, without restoring the ten percent cut from the lines comprising the Human Services Block Grant. However, a two percent Medicaid rate increase was included for nursing homes following several years of cuts and flat funding. Further analysis of the final FY 2013-2014 state budget is available on the CCAP Budget web page.

This priority further addresses system reforms, including the expansion of the Human Services Block Grant to any willing county - just 20 counties were permitted to participate in FY 2012-2013. Amendments to HB 1075, signed into law as Act 55 of 2013, expanded the Block Grant by 10 counties, far short of what the Governor requested and CCAP supported. The ten additional counties that were selected were announced on Oct. 10, 2013, after 15 applied. The Governor has indicated his ongoing support for expansion to any willing county, and CCAP is discussing this with the Administration as a component of the FY 2014-2015 Commonwealth budget.

In addition, Act 55 contains provisions that statutorily adopt advanced quarterly payments for Act 148 child welfare payment schedules to counties. Efforts also continue to gain support from the Corbett administration for an intellectual disabilities managed care proposal, and further work continues with DPW's flexibility work group, which has developed a series of proposals to improve the ability of counties to provide services while reducing unneeded bureaucratic oversight.

ASSESSMENT REFORM

Act 2 of 2013 (SB 66) completed the transfer of the State Tax Equalization Board (STEB) to the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). The act expands STEB duties to include development of an assessment operations and training manual and training programs for county assessors, development and maintenance of a centralized property valuation database, and development of standards on contracting for assessment services. STEB is required to consult with CCAP and its affiliate Assessors Association of Pennsylvania (AAP) in development of the manual, training and contract standards, and DCED has now convened a work group for this purpose. Separate work groups have also convened to update the STEB database used by counties to report sales, STEBTrac. CCAP and AAP have also met with DCED to begin the work plan for development of the training manual and training programs.

STEB must also perform a data review when its calculations show a change of more than 10 percent in a county's common level ratio, and must publish and annually update information on the formulas and data standards it uses to compute the common level ratio and other measures of assessment values.

These changes implement several of the recommendations included in the 2010 Legislative Budget and Finance Committee report on assessment practice. CCAP and AAP have had discussions with DCED on the work plan to hire staff or consultants to assist in revamping core formulas for determining the common level ratio, the coefficient of dispersion, and the price related differential.

FUNDING AND MODERNIZATION SOLUTIONS FOR TRANSPORTATION

On Nov. 25, Gov. Corbett signed HB 1060, comprehensive legislation on transportation system funding and reform, into law as Act 89 of 2013. The act generates $2.3 billion over a five-year period, and addresses many of the issues counties have raised in the context of their responsibilities for infrastructure and mass transit. The funding package includes a dedicated 4.17 percent allocation to counties from the Oil Company Franchise Tax, which will generate new and more stable funding for county bridges. Increased revenue will also be generated for county and forestry bridges through the lifting of the cap on the oil franchise tax, and the act retains the special $5 million allocation to county bridges from Act 44 of 2007. Additional funding comes through a new Highway Bridge Improvement Fund, allocated exclusively to county and municipal bridges. Act 89 also includes a bridge bundling program, now in pilot phase in three counties (Blair, Luzerne and Washington). Additionally, Act 89 gives counties the authority to assess a local $5 vehicle registration fee beginning in 2015, which, if adopted, would be collected by the department and then remitted back to the county for its use in the same manner as existing liquid fuels funds.

Additional detail and analysis are available on CCAP's Transportation Funding Analysis and Resources page.

MAINTAINING AND IMPROVING 911 SERVICES

Over the summer, the House committee conducted a set of regional hearings on 911 issues; CCAP testified on a panel that includes its APCO and NENA partners, and arranged for county commissioners to present testimony at each of the regional hearings. The Association also supported passage of HB 583, introduced by House committee chair Rep. Stephen Barrar (R-Delaware), which has become Act 9 of 2013. CCAP worked with PEMA, APCO and NENA on the language, which tightens provisions on recovery of personnel costs, and changes provisions relating to carry-over costs. The act further incentivizes regionalization of technology and voluntary consolidation while still honoring county discretion in system administration. The act is viewed as an interim step in full reform of the 911 system, necessary to stabilize funding while the full rewrite is underway. With passage of Act 9, full attention has been turned to comprehensive rewrite of the Public Safety Emergency Telephone act, including CCAP, staff of PSAPs and emergency number associations, telephone providers, and PEMA.

INMATES WITH MENTAL ILLNESS AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE ISSUES

A major component of inmate recidivism is untreated mental illness or substance abuse. Under current Department of Public Welfare (DPW) practice, an inmate who qualifies for Medicaid has those benefits terminated upon admission to a county jail; restoring benefits post-release takes time, and those inmates often return to past behaviors before Medicaid is

approved. Suspending benefits at the time of admission allows for benefits to be restored more rapidly and will lead to better outcomes for re-entering inmates, and CCAP is having discussions with the state Department of Corrections and DPW on making this change.

A second goal of this priority is maintenance of public benefits, whether Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, veterans' benefits or other programs, all of which terminate upon admission, until the time of conviction. CCAP has worked closely with the National Association of Counties (NACo) to achieve this policy change to provide better services and less cost to counties. The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will permit pre-conviction inmates to qualify for benefits, including Medicaid, and potentially coverage through health insurance exchanges, depending on state-adopted mechanisms. CCAP continues to pursue the necessary statutory and regulatory changes that will allow available coverage to be maintained for as long as possible.

SHALE GAS IMPACTS

Although no legislation has yet been introduced as a result of the December 2012 report on pipeline placement by the Governor's Energy Executive Pat Henderson, Rep. Matt Baker (R-Tioga) has introduced HB 1607, legislation that would transfer the state's One Call System from the state Department of Labor and Industry to the Public Utility Commission (PUC), and would make other changes such as removing exemptions for gathering pipelines and requiring all facility owners to maintain records of all abandoned lines on a prospective basis. CCAP has had discussions with the PUC during the development of the legislation suggesting that there may be opportunities for information on the location of gathering lines obtained following the removal of this exemption to be shared between the PUC and counties.

The priority also focuses on expansion of natural gas use. In November, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania released its study on expansion of natural gas service under SR 29. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) made available $10 million through the Alternative Fuel Incentive Grant (AFIG) Natural Gas Vehicle program for purchase or conversion of natural gas vehicles under 14,000 pounds, as well as the conversion or purchase of electric, propane or other alternative fuel vehicles of any size.

PREVAILING WAGE REFORM

There have been a number of legislative proposals introduced that would address different options for prevailing wage reform, including increasing the threshold of applicability, extending exemptions to different types of facilities, updating the definition of "maintenance," changing how prevailing wage rates are calculated and offering an opt-out for local governments. Two of the bills came close to a final vote in the state House of Representatives in June - HB 665, introduced by Rep. Ron Marsico (R-Dauphin), to exclude "maintenance" from the act in response to the 2007 Youngwood Borough decision, and HB 796, offered by Rep. David Millard (R-Columbia), to increase the prevailing wage threshold from $25,000 to $100,000.

During the legislature's summer recess, the House Labor and Industry Committee held a series of statewide hearings on prevailing wage reform in Centre, Monroe, Lycoming and Cambria counties; several CCAP members provided testimony at the hearings sharing the impact of prevailing wage requirements with committee members.

Another bill, HB 1538, sponsored by Rep. Ron Miller (R-York), which allows local governments to opt-out of prevailing wage requirements by ordinance or resolution, was reported by a party-line vote from the House Labor and Industry Committee on Sept. 28. Finally, in November, the Governor signed into law Act 89 of 2013, a comprehensive transportation funding package, which included a modest increase in the threshold to $100,000 for transportation projects.

RESTORATION OF COUNTY RECYCLING FEES

In mid-July, CCAP and the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania developed and sent a survey to the county recycling coordinators to gather additional information about county recycling budgets and programs, in order to better inform advocacy efforts going forward. Senator Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) also introduced SB 460, which would allow counties to impose a recycling and solid waste management fee on municipal solid waste generated within its borders, not to exceed $4 per ton and to be used exclusively for recycling and waste management activities. In October, the House also approved HR 425, introduced by Rep. Ron Miller (R-York), requesting a review by the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) of its recycling programs and report recommendations for improvements to the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee within one year. Discussions with committee staff have indicated that they intend that local government input be included in the study.

ACCREDITATION OF COUNTY DIRECTORS OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS

Senate Bill 302, introduced by Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne), was signed into law as Act 5 of 2013 on May 5, requiring all county directors of veterans' affairs to maintain a Department of Veterans Affairs accreditation, and to undergo training established by the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs or one of several nationally accredited veterans' organizations. A one-year time frame is provided for both current and newly appointed directors to achieve the required accreditation, with recertification every five years.

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