Number 20

September 30, 2016

www.pacounties.org

Twitter: @PACountiesGR

LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN

An e-newsletter of the
County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania

The Voice of Pennsylvania Counties Since 1886

IN THIS ISSUE

Governor Addresses General Assembly in Joint Session on Opioid Epidemic

Fall Session in Full Swing

House Panel Hears about Opioid Impact on Children

Auditor General to Conduct Audit of Opioid Programs

PA Supreme Court Renders Decisions on Gaming, Indigent Defense, and Act 13 Cases

DHS Announces Childline Improvements

QUICK LINKS

CCAP Website

Government Relations

Contacts

717-526-1010

GOVERNOR ADDRESSES GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN JOINT SESSION ON OPIOID EPIDEMIC

In a joint session of the General Assembly, Gov. Tom Wolf has outlined a plan to combat the opioid and heroin epidemic in Pennsylvania during the closing days of the legislative session. In his address, Gov. Wolf outlined five priorities in an effort to alleviate the impact from the crisis, including changes to the recently implemented prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP), and called on the legislature to approve several proposals now before the House and Senate. In addition, the Governor called for improving and increasing education requirements for doctors and physicians, and limiting both the supply of opioid prescriptions that emergency room patients may receive, as well as prescriptions to minors. The joint session also highlighted the need for insurance coverage for abuse-deterrent opioids, and the option for patients to establish a voluntary directive if they do not want to be prescribed opioids.

A number of legislative proposals have been introduced to address these priorities, many of which have already seen movement in the first two weeks of the fall session. The Governor and members of the House and Senate also acknowledged that legislation and other measures aimed to combat the opioid and heroin epidemic will likely continue in the new session that begins in January 2017.

FALL SESSION IN FULL SWING

The House and Senate have returned for the remaining weeks of the 2015-2016 session, using the last few scheduled days to move many bills through committees and both chambers. Among them, HB 1885, sponsored by Rep. Martina White (R-Philadelphia), would require local governments to enforce federal immigration law, even though federal courts and agencies have clearly established that ICE detainer requests are voluntary and not mandatory orders. The bill could expose counties to costly lawsuits whether or not they detain an individual in a county prison pursuant to a detainer request. The House State Government Committee reported the bill 15-8, with Republican members voting in favor and Democratic members voting in the negative.

Sen. Randy Vulakovich's (R-Allegheny) SB 1048, would tighten the timelines for state and local governments to provide notification of security breaches of personal information to within seven days of discovering the breach. In addition, local governments would be required to notify their local district attorney within three business days. The Senate approved the bill 50-0 on Sept. 28, and it now goes to the House for its consideration.

Senate Bill 1282, introduced by Sen. Scott Wagner (R-York), would prohibit the collection of UPI fees associated with indexing condominium association declaration amendments to individual parcels. The bill was reported by the House Urban Affairs Committee with an amendment to require counties with a UPI system to assign a master parcel number to each condominium association, and index declaration amendments against the master parcel. CCAP opposed both the bill and amendment, noting that entering the information only on the master parcel will not automatically make it appear on the individual properties in all county UPI systems, and that prohibiting the indexing fees actually creates a fairness issue whereby other property owners that are not in communities are forced to pay the per parcel fee while those in communities are not. Senate Bill 1282 was reported by the committee with a 19-2 vote and now goes to the full House for consideration.

Both chambers will return to the Capitol on Oct. 17 for two final weeks of voting session. Talking points and other materials on legislation that remains on the active calendar can be found on CCAP's Legislative Action Center.

HOUSE PANEL HEARS ABOUT OPIOID IMPACT ON CHILDREN

The House Children and Youth Committee recently held a hearing to focus specifically on the impact of opioid addiction on infants and children. Along with a wide variety of medical professionals presenting testimony, Washington County Children and Youth Services administrator Kim Rogers shared how the epidemic is affecting the child welfare system. Rogers told the committee that in 2015, the number of referrals related to parental substance abuse more than doubled from the prior year, and nearly half of the county's referrals in 2016 revolve around parents using drugs. Parental opioid dependency is also the reason for increased child placements over the past two years, and they are now at the highest levels the county has ever seen.

To address the opioid epidemic, the county is working with the courts and community programs, and the children and youth agency has collaborated with the Washington County Drug and Alcohol Commission to develop a program where child welfare and drug and alcohol evaluators work together. However, the increase in referrals as a result of both the opioid epidemic and the new child welfare laws enacted in 2015 has put high demands on staff, and Rogers advocated that caseloads and resources be revisited to assure quality services can be provided to protect children.

Rogers' full testimony can be read at www.pacounties.org under the Government Relations tab.

AUDITOR GENERAL TO CONDUCT AUDIT OF OPIOID PROGRAMS

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale recently announced that he is planning an audit to review the monitoring and effectiveness of state-led opioid-related drug treatment initiatives. The audit will observe three state agencies, including the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Corrections, which separately oversee, offer and connect specific programs to individuals with opioid addictions. The three concurrent audits intend to focus on how these state agencies measure and evaluate drug treatment programs, and will further observe the fund allocations designated for opioid-related treatment initiatives and their performance results. The audit review will cover the period beginning January 1, 2013 and extending through the end of the audit procedures, with the final results set to be released in the spring of 2017.

PA SUPREME COURT RENDERS DECISIONS ON GAMING, INDIGENT DEFENSE, AND ACT 13 CASES

In a recent series of decisions the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rendered opinions on several cases impacting counties, relating to Act 13 of 2012 (unconventional gas drilling amendments to the Oil and Gas Act), the local share assessment provided by gaming facilities to municipalities and counties, and indigent defense.

In a 4-2 majority opinion in Robinson Township, et al v. PUC (Aplt.), AG & DEP, the court addressed multiple areas of Act 13 including extension of a previous Commonwealth Court ruling striking the state preemption of local zoning for oil and gas to also strike provisions for the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to review local ordinances and withhold impact fee funding related to noncompliant ordinances. The Court further ruled that exclusions from notifications of spills to private water well owners, medical gag orders barring informational access on chemicals utilized in the fracking process, and eminent domain provisions related to underground storage fields are also unconstitutional. The ruling was stayed for 180 days to allow the General Assembly to correct any of these provisions of the law if it so chooses.

The Court also issued a decision in Mt. Airy v. PA Department of Revenue striking down the local share assessment paid by casinos to their host municipalities, ruling that as structured it is a non-uniform tax prohibited under Pennsylvania's constitution. In doing so, the Court crafted a remedy that severed the sections of law regarding both the municipal and host county shares; while the county shares were not at issue, the Court opined that they overlapped to the extent that both needed to be severed. However, recognizing the significant fiscal impact to affected local governments, the Court stayed its decision for 120 days to give time for the General Assembly to craft a solution.

Finally, in Kuren et al. v. Luzerne County, the Court established the ability of indigent defendants to challenge counties by alleging systemic violations of their Sixth Amendment rights to counsel due to a lack of county funding for the public defender's office. The Court decision acknowledged that Pennsylvania is the only state not providing state dollars to indigent defense.

DHS ANNOUNCES CHILDLINE IMPROVEMENTS

The Department of Human Services (DHS) has announced that it has made important improvements to the ChildLine hotline that takes calls regarding suspected cases of child abuse.

After nearly 30 new laws amending the state's child protection statutes took effect in January 2015, ChildLine saw a 14 percent increase in calls without the resources to handle the influx. A May report from the state's Auditor General noted that 22 percent of calls in 2015 were unanswered, up from four percent in 2014. Since then, DHS received an additional $1.8 million in the state budget, and has increased staffing from 48 to 81 employees, so that now only two percent of calls to the hotline do not reach a caseworker.

While applauding the improvements to ChildLine, CCAP also noted the need for every link in the chain that provides safety for abused and neglected children to be strong. The increase in call volume for ChildLine parallels the dramatic increases in investigation workload for county children and youth caseworkers. Because counties actually investigate the allegations of child abuse reported through ChildLine, counties are calling for the same level of attention to the funding and staffing needs in their agencies. The number of investigations has increased by more than 100 percent in some counties since the new laws went into effect and, while finally beginning to stabilize, remain at these new higher levels.

CCAP and its affiliate Pennsylvania Children and Youth Administrators (PCYA) continue to work closely with DHS and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts to look at caseworker turnover, increasing caseloads, and improvements to data systems with the objective of stabilizing the county case management workforce.

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