Pennsylvania State Capitol. Photo credit: Zack Frank/Shutterstock.com

Following is a listing of legislative and executive action for Nov. 16 and the week of Nov. 19. Both houses of the General Assembly are in recess, with no session days scheduled for the remainder of the year. Members of the new Pennsylvania Senate and state House of Representatives are set to be sworn into office Jan. 1.

Close Elections

A Pennsylvania Senate seat in Bucks County and a state House of Representatives post based in Washington County remained undecided as the Thanksgiving holiday approached.

In both races, Republicans maintained leads over their Democratic opponents of less than 100 votes.

State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, R-Bucks, held a 72-vote advantage over his Democratic challenger, state Rep. Tina Davis, in the fight for the 6th District Senate seat in Bucks County.

As election workers continued to open ballots, WHYY reported, Davis filed a cause of action in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas over 192 absentee ballots that were received just after a deadline. It’s asking for an injunction against certifying a winner until those ballots are counted.

The Observer-Reporter newspaper reported Nov. 20 that after tabulation of provisional ballots, state Rep. Bud Cook, R-Washington, held an 11-vote lead over Democratic challenger Steve Toprani, the former district attorney of Washington County. Nearly 20,000 votes were cast in the election, the newspaper said.

Toprani said on his Facebook page that he was not ready to concede defeat, the Observer-Reporter said. He faced a Nov. 26 deadline to demand a recount.

Fiscal Outlook

State Rep. Frank Ryan, R-Lebanon, on Nov. 16 said voters and policymakers in Pennsylvania need to face the fact that the state’s fiscal outlook will lead to higher taxes and reduced services unless drastic measures are taken soon..

Ryan pointed to a new midyear report on the state's fiscal situation by the Independent Fiscal Office that he described in dire terms.

The IFO report cites shortfalls of $1.5 billion per year for the next five years. It is also facing a demographic crisis in which younger people are leaving the state and retirees are moving in. The report predicts that by 2021, higher human services costs, pension obligations and unfunded portions of the Medicaid expansion mandate will result in a $3 billion annual budget deficit.

Ryan, who traces the financial troubles to spending and inefficiency, and said he opposes tax increases, used the report as a springboard to promote a fiscal “rescue plan.”

“As a financial professional whose job it was to rescue businesses from bankruptcy and insolvency, and as a military commander, I don’t make predictions casually,” Ryan said in a statement. “But I can assure voters and taxpayers that this report from the IFO will result in proposed tax hikes while residents continue to struggle to pay ever-increasing school property taxes. This is unacceptable.”

Consumer Protection

Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Nov. 20 announced a major victory in his continuing effort to prevent gift card scams targeting consumers.

According to a statement from Shapiro’s office, the accord followed more than a year of collaboration with the Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection and the New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood’s Bureau of Consumer Frauds & Protection. Three national retailers have agreed to make major changes to their gift card policies, which are intended to prevent gift cards sold in their stores from being used for payment by victims of scams. Walmart, Target and Best Buy made these changes voluntarily thanks to the joint initiative of Pennsylvania and New York.

“I am proud to announce this victory for Pennsylvania consumers and consumers across the nation as we gear up for the biggest retail shopping day of the year,” Shapiro said. “This level of change in corporate behavior usually requires years of investigations and, sometimes, litigation. Here, we were able to work constructively with retailers to address the issue and protect consumers from scams.”

Sexual Assault

Shapiro and Auditor General Eugene DePasquale each issued statements Nov. 16 denouncing U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ plan to change Title IX regulations applying to campus sexual assault.

Guidance from the Department of Education focused on due process afforded in campus tribunals examining accusations of sexual assault.

But Shapiro called the Trump administration’s plan “fundamentally flawed” and a “step backward” for student safety in higher education.

“Among other things, Title IX guarantees all students an education free of sexual harassment and assault, and the proposal undermines that fundamental right,” Shapiro said. “These rules are a failure of leadership on the part of Secretary DeVos and the Trump administration and a betrayal of sexual assault survivors and the advocates who work so tirelessly on their behalf.”

DePasquale was even more scathing, saying the proposals weaken colleges’ handling of sexual misconduct claims.

“We should be working to make it harder—not easier—for schools to shield rapists and harassers, and avoid accountability,” he said.