Pennsylvania Votes Forum

As many expected, Senate Republicans fell short in their effort to override several of the Governor's line-item vetoes in Senate Bill 850 (the state budget). Thirty-three votes total were needed for override, and only one Democrat, Sen. Lisa Boscola of the Lehigh Valley, joined with all 29 Republicans...

According to Patriot-News journalist Charlie Thompson , the Senate Republicans will attempt to override Governor Rendell's vetoes of several line items in Senate Bill 850 (the state budget, a.ka. the "bridge budget"). A veto override requires a two-thirds vote of both the state House and...

A state budget was finally sent to Gov. Rendell's desk ( Senate Bill 850 ), which passed with only a handful of negative votes in the House. However, the Governor chose to use his power of the line-item veto to "blue-line" all spending in the bill except that which is necessary to pay state...

Calling the budget Conference Committee of six legislative leaders a "circus," Gov. Rendell has intervened by inviting Sen. Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi and House Majority Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans to the mansion for talks. The move brought jeers from activists, lamenting...

The House has rejected the Senate's amendments to the state budget (HB 1416), which pared spending down even more, to $27.1 billion. The vote was 49-150 (I hope to have the precise roll call up shortly, my apologies for the delay). What happens next is anyone's guess. It's likely the Senate...

Political lexicographers may have to render the term "lame duck" obsolete thanks to Ed Rendell. The term, used in the context of Pennsylvania's Governor, refers to a politician who his close to leaving office due to a term limit and has diminished political power, as other elected officials...

Using the Pennsylvania State Tax Analysis Modeling Program (PA-STAMP), an economic modeling program developed by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, the Commonwealth Foundation projects that a 16% increase in the PIT (from a rate of 3.07% to 3.57%) would result in 23,960 fewer jobs next...