Telephone Town Hall
On Wednesday, February 4th at 6:30 p.m., State Senator Jay Costa held a live Telephone Town Hall Meeting Participants were able to ask questions as well as listen to a discussion about issues that are important to our area.
Listen to Telephone Town Hall Meeting below.
Hugh Baird: Hello. This is Hugh Baird [phonetic 00:00:02]. I’m your moderator for this evening’s discussion. I’m here with State Senator Jay Costa, and we want to welcome you to this live telephone town hall. If you have a question for Senator Costa at any point this evening, you can press *3 on your phone’s keypad. Senator?
Senator Jay Costa: Well, Hugh, thank you very much. And I also want to thank all of our listeners and folks who are participating in tonight’s phone call in the 43rd Senatorial District.
I think folks know some of the best feedback we get, Hugh, is from ideas and discussions that we have when we talk directly with our constituency. Whether it’s back in the district at a community meeting, or whether it’s to the telephone town halls that we’ve doing the last year or so, it’s always a great opportunity to hear what’s on the minds of our residents in our district, and issues that are important here in the Commonwealth, and some of the things that are going on locally in the Pittsburgh/Alleghany County region. So I’m very pleased to be able to offer tonight another opportunity to have that conversation.
I would just remind listeners if they have a question that they’d like to ask us, we will put them through the process. But they need to press *3 on their phones and then proceed to ask the question that they have. And I’ll be happy to answer as many calls—and our goal is to provide information, and answer as many calls as possible as we go forward tonight.
Hugh Baird: Thank you, Senator. Again, for those of you just joining us, if you have a question for Senator Costa at any point this evening, you can press *3 on your phone’s keypad.
Senator, we have a number of people that are calling in and are ready to participate. Can you give a little background to those who have joined us as to what are the things we’re looking at upcoming in this legislative session?
Senator Jay Costa: Well, we have a number of things that are going on. First and foremost, we have a new governor who, in about another month, will provide us with a proposed budget for the 2015-[20]16 fiscal year. And we’re excited about the opportunity to have a Democratic governor who, I think, will try to take Pennsylvania in a little bit of a different direction on some of the issues that we were concerned about over the past four years. But we must recognize that we have some pretty serious fiscal and financial concerns here in the Commonwealth. While we’re doing okay this fiscal year—we’re meeting our budget projections for the [20]14-[20]15 fiscal year—we look at a nearly $2 billion-plus budget, structural deficit, that we need to address as we go forward.
So the goal is going to be figure out a way to work in a bipartisan, bicameral way in which we could close that shortfall and do the things that we talked about over the course of the past year in terms of investments that we want to make. Investments in education, for example, I think, is one thing that members, and during last year’s election, heard loud and clear; making investments in education and making investments in how we’re going to grow jobs in the Commonwealth. Those are probably two things that we heard quite a bit about throughout Pennsylvania, and clearly played themselves out through the gubernatorial election that took place last year.
So we’re working toward that end to try to address that issue, and try to address a way which we can restore financial stability to Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, over the course of the past year and a half, Pennsylvania suffered from three downgrades, three bond rating downgrades, downgrades that really impacted our ability, and questioned the stability of the Commonwealth. So we have to restore that as we go forward, and that will be a big part of the conversation, Hugh.
Hugh Baird: All right. Jay, just for those that just joined us. Again, we have a new governor that has just been elected. We just had the swearing-in, and the legislature has just been sworn in. Could you go through a little bit of the process? The governor will be delivering a budget address fairly soon.
Senator Jay Costa: Right.
Hugh Baird: And then if you would go through, for those who joined us, what the process is?
Senator Jay Costa: Well, the governor is required to provide the legislature, the General Assembly, with a balanced budget. So he makes budget recommendations. And it will be done, I believe, on March 4, March 3 or March 4, of this year, the first Tuesday in March.
And then we will then go through a budget process—a budget hearing process, an appropriation hearing process—where each of the parts of the budget of some 500-plus lines will be analyzed by Appropriation Committee members both in the Senate and in the House. And the various agencies or department heads or secretaries will come in and make their presentation to those committees, stating why they need whatever resources they have laid out in the budget proposal, why it’s necessary for that to take place.
That will take place over the course of about three and a half weeks. And then we will come back to General Assembly in early April and we will begin a process by which we will deliberate a budget that will meet the needs of Pennsylvania residents that hopefully is fairly consistent with what Governor Wolf will be proposing. And that will be part of the process as we go, bring that closure. We’re required to close the budget out by June 30 of this year, and my hope is that we’ll be able to meet that deadline with a balanced budget that meets the needs of Pennsylvanians.
Hugh Baird: Thank you, Jay. And we’ve had a number of folks that have joined us. Again, if you have a question for Senator Costa at any point this evening, you can come online, get in the queue. We’ll get you on the air as quickly as possible by pressing *3. Senator, we’re going to go to callers right now. Our fist caller is Janet. Janet, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Senator Jay Costa: Hi, Janet.
Janet: Hi, Senator Costa. I was wondering. You had a paper shredding and a recycling event this past summer over in Edgewood, and I was wondering if you were planning to do that again this coming year sometime, and where that location might be? And also—
Senator Jay Costa: I’m sorry. Continue.
Janet: Okay. My second question is I live on Barton Drive in Churchill, and our backyards are perpendicular to the Parkway East. And between our backyards and the Parkway is what the neighbors call a no-man’s land that actually belongs to the State. And it really needs to be cleared out with a lot of debris. We get a lot of litter from people on the Parkway. And there’s a trench along there that collects the water when it rains or snows, and it runs down the hill. And it’s getting clogged up and it’s starting to come into our backyards a little bit. It’s been done once since I’ve lived here, and I’ve been in this house 20 years, so I was wondering if we could arrange something about that?
Senator Jay Costa: What I can do is we’ll get your name and information and reach out to you, and have somebody out there both from PennDOT and from the borough to work to try to see what the problem is and try to resolve it. So we’re going to ask you to maybe do me a favor. Give my office a call tomorrow, if you could, at (412) 241-6690. Ask for Elaine, and she will be able to provide you with the relevant information. We’ll take your name and information and make sure we get out there quickly, and bring the PennDOT folks out and discuss that.
With respect to the shredding event, we are scheduled to do one in May. We’re working to schedule one in May and one in September of this year. We’re likely to do two events this year. We’ve not narrowed down a location, but we will make it available to folks very, very soon. But the shredding events have become very popular, and I think we’re going to continue to do, as I say, we’ll do two this year.
Hugh Baird: Janet, thank you very much for the call. Again, for those who have joined us, if you have a question for Senator Costa, you can press *3 on your keypad and we’ll get you on as quickly as possible. Senator, we’re going to go to Kathy now. Kathy, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Kathy: Senator Costa, Kathy [unintelligible 00:07:34] out here from Churchill Borough. I’m very upset that Pennsylvania didn’t accept the Medicare enhancement that was offered for the Affordable Care Act. And it was my opinion, or I thought, that Governor Wolf was going to make a transition from this corporate of Healthy PA to the original Medicaid enhancement. What’s happening there?
Senator Jay Costa: You are correct. Governor Wolf has been engaged in that conversation. He’s been in office now a couple of weeks. As you can imagine, there are a number of things that are on his plate. But clearly, accepting the Medicaid expansion as part of the solution to address healthcare for a half million folks, and driving abut $2-3 billion worth of healthcare delivery into Pennsylvania, particularly in southeast and southwest Pennsylvania because of the level of healthcare delivery we provide, I believe that we are going to move forward, and you are going to hear more of a conversation and that when the governor does his budget address very soon.
To us, that is a major issue. And, like you, we are very disappointed that Governor Corbett chose to go ahead and not necessarily reject the Medicaid expansion, but put into a more private provider model, which we thought we less efficient and more costly, and didn’t provide the level and level of benefits that we thought were appropriate to those working Pennsylvanians. We’re talking half a million individuals who work every day who would have been able to receive a very modest level of healthcare. We’re continuing to pursue that, and I believe that you will see more conversation about that as go forward in weeks ahead.
Hugh Baird: Kathy, thank you very much for your call. Again, for those that have joined us, you can ask Senator Costa a question by pressing *3 on your keypad. So we’re going to go back to a caller. We’re going to go now to Dean, who has a question about state parks. Dean, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa. Dean, are you there?
Marian: Oh. It’s Marian.
Hugh Baird: Oh, I’m sorry.
Marian: I’m sorry. You’re talking to Marian from Squirrel Hill.
Senator Jay Costa: Hi, Marian.
Marian: Yes, hi. All right. I’m very much concerned with the environmental state and the state parks. And that leads me to wonder what in the world is going to happen to our state parks, which are—I’ve been in a great number, probably all of them up to the center part of the state. What’s happening with this fracking? I’m very concerned that that’s going to produce damage to the environment, to the animals, to the whole park area. What’s going on, and how can—I mean, what’s your position on fracking near state parks?
Senator Jay Costa: I agree that the state parks are tremendous and valuable assets to the Commonwealth, and the people of Pennsylvania have every right to expect that we’re going to do everything we can to protect them. I supported, over the course of the past several years, a moratorium on any additional drilling in our state parks and in our state forest lands.
And Corbett, as you know, reversed that. I’m very happy to report to you that just this week—or late last week, I should say—Governor Wolf signed an executive order that would put a moratorium on any type of drilling in any of our state parks and our state lands. So it’s great to see that, and we continue to support what the governor is doing along those lines.
Hugh Baird: Well, that you very much for the question. Senator, we have a number of people who want to speak to you this evening. We’re going to go to Dennis now. Dennis, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Dennis: Good afternoon, Senator Costa. This is Dennis Hughes. How are you doing?
Senator Jay Costa: Hi, Dennis.
Dennis: Okay, listen. Senator, I have a comment and I have a question.
Senator Jay Costa: Sure.
Dennis: About me being a Vietnam veteran who’s been home 47 years. You know, I just want people to understand that all veterans are heroes. And it doesn’t make a difference what war they were in, veterans died so that you all might have the freedoms that you have today. And all wars are the same. All wars are the same.
And I just want to get that out there because, like I said, I’ve been home 47 years. And I just wanted to—because I’m not seeing this now. I go around the country and I speak a lot, and I’m not seeing this. I’d like to see more done. There’s more homelessness of veterans and there’s more suicide. They just passed a bill today pertaining to suicide. But is it just reflecting on the Iraq and Afghanistan troops? It should reflect on all veterans, no matter what war they were in. Those are my comments for the Vietnam part.
Now, I have a problem. I have a deceased son that died 19 years ago, Senator. Nineteen years ago. And every week, I get something in the mail with his name on it. It’s bad enough I have to deal with the after-effects of the Vietnam war; and then to see my deceased son’s name every week. What did they do? Go to the grave and dig up my son’s name? And I’m tired of it.
Senator Jay Costa: But Dennis, first and foremost, thank you very much for your service. We truly appreciate what you’ve done for all of us, and we appreciate it very much. With respect to benefits and programs for veterans, Senate Democrats last year launched a veterans’ package of bills that in a variety of different ways would have provided assistance to our veterans, regardless of what war they were in. And we’re going to continue to pursue those.
Last year we had success with legislation that Senator Hughes introduced that provided for a preference for veterans on housing lists, in terms of low-income housing; that veterans would receive preferential points towards that to make it easier for them to qualify. And we continue to have programs that would do that.
I can share with you at some point the list of bills that we have that would relate to our veterans’ package of bills, but they relate to a variety of areas. They relate to housing, as we talked about; they relate to programs that veterans would be able to access themselves to for a variety of physical health and mental health issues that need to be addressed; and other types of support that veterans will need to do. Veterans’ preference with respect to small businesses, for example, and making sure that we include them in that conversation as well.
Personally, one of the things that we do in recognition of the work that we do, what veterans have done for us and our working with them, we provide a veterans’ luncheon each year to honor those veterans who provided a great level of service to our country, and to provide us with the freedoms we enjoy. And we’re going to continue to do that because I think it’s important that we honor our veterans and recognize them for the work that they’ve done.
With respect to your issue with your son, I’m sorry to hear that you’re still getting mail after all these years. But I would recommend we contact the post office and indicate to them that there’s mail that should not come to you along those lines. So that’s one of the things that I think we can do going forward. Also I recommend maybe you call Elaine in my office (412) 241-6677. Ask for Elaine. And we will get that information. We’ll coordinate that with the post office for you, and also make certain that we reach out to Congressman Mike Doyle to also get an update to some of the veterans’ programs that are being done at the federal level. Thank you, buddy.
Hugh Baird: Senator, we have a number of folks who want to speak with you. Again, for those that have joined us, you can press *3 on the keypad and we’ll get you on the line. Senator, we’re going to go back to the callers right now. We’re going to go to Sandra. Sandra, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa. Sandra, are you there? Sorry, Sandra’s not coming on.
Senator, there’s a number of things that are coming up in the legislature. We have a number of ideas that are in front of the folks who want to speak with you this evening. I want to go back to the callers at this point. Let’s see if we can get Sandra on the line.
Senator, if we can expand a little bit about relative things in the Senate, how the Senate will progress this year. I know we talked about the process, the budget process goes through June. If you could expand a little bit on that.
Senator Jay Costa: Yeah, there will be hearings on each of the agencies. And this year in particular, there’s a concern about the level of funding for education, and we’re making certain—trying to make sure that we provide for the appropriate level of funding for our education, for our schools, both from K to 12, but also pre-K and our higher ed as well.
Today we had a very important press conference on what we call our College Access Plan. About 12 Senate Democrats joined together to make sure that we provide legislation, have a dialogue about how it is we can make higher education more affordable for folks to be able to really become engaged in attending our higher education institutions. So we’re working very hard towards that end to provide a variety of bills along those lines. Those types of things will be discussed as we go forward over the course of the next several weeks.
Hugh Baird: Thank you, Senator. Senator, we’re going to return back to the callers. We’re going to go to Chris. Chris, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Chris: Yes, Senator Costa. I’d like to know, what are you going to do about property taxes, these high property taxes?
Senator Jay Costa: Well, a couple things that are going on. We continue to support some of the improvements that we made through the gaming legislation that provides support to all of our homeowners, our homestead owners, as well as the work through the Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program that we provided back through the Gaming Act. And more importantly, in the city of Pittsburgh, you’ll see for Pittsburgh residents the extra kicker that’s in there as well. There’s strong relief going out along those lines.
There are a number of bills that have been proposed. One is Senate Bill 76 that ran into a lot of objections because of how it was going to eliminate property taxes, they said; but at the end of the day, it did not because you still have to worry about debt service for school districts. So you eliminate a large part of it. But it also shifted about $3-4 billion worth of property taxes away from our businesses—so Walmarts and large institutions, the for-profit institutions—shifts it away from the businesses and shifts it over to residents, where they would pay in increase—a disproportional increase—in their sales tax as well as in their personal income tax.
Senate Democrats yesterday, we had a retreat on this subject. And we’re looking at legislation that would not necessarily eliminate property tax, but could provide up to a $2,000 rebate to all homeowners, homestead owners—principal homestead—a $2,000 rebate for school property taxes. So if your property taxes are $1,500 for your school district, you would get $1,500 back, and it would be a 100 percent elimination of your property taxes for your school district. If you’re paying $3,200 for your school district property taxes, then you would then receive a $2,030 check to help offset that cost. It would not completely eliminate your property taxes in some instances, but in the large majority of Pennsylvanians, it would eliminate their school district property taxes, which we think have become very, very onerous.
At the same time, we’ll continue to have a Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program in place, and we will also work to make certain that we can grow that number as time goes on. But more importantly, it doesn’t increase some of the other taxes that would be proposed, for example, under Senate Bill 76, and I think that’s what we need to recognize. So I think it’s a fair balance that provides significant, really significant, property tax relief for our school district folks who are paying those taxes. It helps them out a lot, and that’s something we’re working towards right now.
Hugh Baird: Chris, thank you very much for your call. Senator, we’re going to go back to the callers. We’re going to go now to Barton. Barton, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Barton: Good evening, Senator.
Senator Jay Costa: Good evening, Barton.
Barton: During the last primary, the candidates for governor, I was present at one of the debates when Jack Wagner brought up the idea that the Pennsylvania Turnpike could be made a showcase for alternative fuels. Considering the growing danger of the global warming crisis, I wondered if you might be interested in eventually working along those lines?
Senator Jay Costa: Oh, absolutely. In fact, I think we have a new chairman at the Turnpike Commission from Alleghany County, Senator Sean Logan, or former Senator Logan, now serving as the chairman. And I believe that they are taking steps to incorporate alternative types of fuel to expand the opportunities along those lines. I know that they’ve made an emphasis on that, and I believe that they will be able to do that, the electric issue as well as natural gas. Both those alternatives are being presented, and I believe you’ll see an expansion along those lines.
Hugh Baird: Barton, thank you very much for the call. Senator, we’re going to turn back to the callers. Remember, if you have a question this evening for Senator Costa, you can press *3 on your keypad. Senator, we’re going to now go to Tim. Tim, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Tim: Yes, Senator Costa. My name is Tim Sinsel [phonetic 00:21:05], calling from Braddock Hills. I’ve been trying to get—I’m on Social Security Disability and I’m eligible for the Obama healthcare act to get healthcare. Public welfare says that I’m like $75 over or 50 bucks over that and I can’t get healthcare, and I’ve been trying. And I can’t get Obamacare because I’m over the tax bracket for it.
And my second question is former Governor Corbett, when he was in office, signed into law that if you don’t pay your heating bills in the winter, you could be shut off. I was wondering, do you see in the future that Governor Wolf would reverse that, and to make it so that doesn’t happen?
Senator Jay Costa: I think that you will see a more compassionate Governor Wolf along those lines. I know that those are Chapter 14 issues that we’ve dealt with in the past, and I think you’ll see—we just reinstituted Chapter 14 language legislation in the course of the last year. I think what you’ll see is further limitations on the companies’ ability—the utility companies—their ability to do shutoffs, particularly on weekends, for example. We captured that. And we’re going to continue to take a look at that because oftentimes those are very, very difficult circumstances of folks we’re dealing with, and we need to have a governor that’s going to provide—now we do have a governor that’s going to provide compassionate understanding along those lines. And we have to drive that message to our utility companies who, I think, under appropriate circumstances, will work with folks.
I know our office has done that in the past, and if you have any issues, I suggest you give our office a call with whatever utility that you’re dealing with and we’ll work with you along those lines.
With respect to the Obamacare, or the Medicaid expansion that I think you’re referring to, if you need help trying to calculate or navigate through that process at this point, again, call us and we’ll hook you up with our Department of Human Services that’s managing and administering the Medicaid program. Right now, we are sort of in a transition period. The signup or the enrollment has not been as effective as we thought it needed to or should be, or as inviting, I should say, as it needs to be or should be. So we’re trying to address and work through those issues, but at the end of the day, we stand ready to help you along those lines as well.
Hugh Baird: Tim, thank you for your call. Senator, we have a number of people that want to speak with you. We’re going to go to Karen. Karen, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Karen: Good evening, Senator Costa. It’s an honor to speak with you.
Senator Jay Costa: Thank you.
Karen: My question was that you mentioned there would be a shortfall in the budget. And how do you think you will make this up?
Senator Jay Costa: Well, I think we make it up in a couple of ways. First and foremost, I think we have to look at our spending and be creative in ways in which we can reduce spending. One of the ways in which we can reduce the spending, anywhere to $200 million to $225 million, relates to the Medicaid expansion that we talked about earlier.
The governor’s proposal, Governor Corbett’s implementation, the beginning of the Healthy PA program, did not achieve the savings that we believe are necessary to allow us to operate efficiently and appropriately. The private model that he’s utilizing is more expensive and less efficient than a managed care model that we have across Pennsylvania right now that has proven to be a very effective model, very efficient model, to drive up managed care, or, to drive up Medicaid expansion programs. So that’s one thing we’ll look at, reversing the Healthy PA program and implementing Medicaid expansion. That, between now and June 30, will likely save us—it won’t save us a whole lot between now and June 30, but if we implement it fully in [20]15-[20]16, it could achieve about $200-plus million additional savings than what we talked about.
The second area is our long-term care. Shifting away from the current way we manage long-term care and shift to a managed care model, that would, I think, generate an additional $200 million in savings.
On the revenue side, we will be looking very seriously at the Marcellus Shale extraction tax, imposing that. And I know that our colleague, Senator Haywood, a new member to the legislature, has introduced legislation that will provide for an eight percent Marcellus Shale tax. Others have introduced anywhere from four, four and a half to five percent extraction tax. So the range of dollars that we would receive there would likely be around anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion, with a large portion of whatever amount we end up with settling on going towards education to fund our educational programs, sort of a dedicated source of revenue for our education. Governor Wolf will certainly be talking about this in his budget address as we go forward as one revenue stream to help us pay for our education, basic ed K to 12. And so you’ll see more conversation along those lines.
Finally, a couple of the areas that we’ve talked a lot about that we’ll continue to look at. Tax on smokeless tobacco, for example. I know that we don’t tax our cigars, we don’t provide a tax on smokeless tobacco. We’re one of the few states in the country that doesn’t do that. That could generate, between the two of them, $120 million-plus as we go forward. Those two things I just mentioned are sort of two low-hanging-fruit things that we can do.
So at the end of the day, it’s a combination of reducing spending in a variety of different places, and utilize programs or invest in programs that provide us best results. And on the revenue side, we’re looking at extraction tax and imposing a couple of other taxes on, for example, as I mentioned, on smokeless tobacco and other tobacco products, cigars and the like.
Hugh Baird: Karen, thank you very much for the call and the comments. Senator, we’re going to go back to the callers again. If you have a question for Senator Costa, you can press *3 on your keypad. Senator, we’re going to go to Joseph. Joseph, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Joseph: Hello, Senator. How are you?
Senator Jay Costa: Very well, thanks. How are you doing today?
Joseph: Great. Hey, I have a question.
Senator Jay Costa: Sure.
Joseph: Is there any help available from the state level or the federal level to help struggling EMS services that depend on contributions with all the cutbacks on healthcare where all the reimbursements are being cut?
Senator Jay Costa: Yeah. A couple ways on which I think we’ve been trying to help our EMS folks along those lines. Obviously we’ve tried to put more money into the grant program that we currently have, along with all the fire companies; the money that we’ve been driving out to our local EMS folks. Trying to grow that number and get a greater share of that.
The second thing is one of the things that has been a problem, as I understand it, for a lot of our organizations, has been the manner in which the reimbursement checks come for services. Right now, they come to the homeowner. So if your EMS service takes me from my home to the hospital, the insurance company reimburses me, the patient, the consumer. And oftentimes a lot of folks who are receiving those checks are not forwarding those checks, as I understand it, to the EMS folks, and that becomes a problem. So you’re not getting the amount of revenue that you should be getting for the service that you provided.
So there’s talk about doing a dual signature or dual payment, or a direct payment to the EMS folks along those lines. So that’s one of the ways in which we could enhance your ability to receive the revenues that we need to do. But absent a grant program, or a more direct stream of revenue, those are the two sources that I’m aware of that we will work towards.
Hugh Baird: Joseph, thank you very much for your call. Senator, there is a number of folks that want to talk about the Highmark/UPMC issue. And we’re going to bring on Randy. Randy, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Randy: Hi, Senator. Thanks for taking my call. I was wondering if you know if Governor Wolf is planning on getting involved in the Highmark/UPMC fiasco, since there still seems to be a lot of confusion as to the continuation of care and the consent decree, and if there’s any way that they could be forced to come to agreement, or take their tax-exempt state withdrawn?
Senator Jay Costa: Well, yes, he has got involved. He brought the issue with respect to—if you were following it recently—the issue regarding Magee issue, and making certain that folks had access to Magee. So, yeah, he did get involved, and I believe he will continue to get involved. Whether or not we’re successful in getting these two entities to contract, extend the contract to reinstate a new contract going forward, I can’t say that for certain.
I’ve been working with my colleague here in the Senate, Senator Randy Vulakovich, as well as Representative Dan Frankel in the House and Representative Jim Christiana, in a bipartisan, bicameral way, trying to create language that would impose binding arbitration on these two entities if they can’t come to an agreement.
Now, we’ve not had any success moving that bill up at this point in time. There is a consent decree that has been entered by the insurance commissioner along with the attorney general and the Department of Health. The problem is, though, that there is a lot of ambiguity in that language that I think has created problems, as you mentioned. And what we’re looking at potentially is any time that there’s going to be a disagreement about the intent or what was meant by the consent agreement, it’s going to end up in arbitration; it’s going to drag things out; it’s going to create greater anxiety for folks who are engaged in the middle of that conversation. I think that’s wrong. I believe that these two entities need to come together and work together to resolve the differences. My hope is that we can get to a point in time where we have an expanded, extend the contract.
But the answer to your question is I believe you will see Governor Wolf more engaged. I think you will see the legislature more engaged as these disputes continue to arise. And I think that at the end of the day, we’ve got to make sure that the law isn’t harmful to the people of Pennsylvania, particularly the western part of the state.
To that end, I think that the governor needs to get his legs under him here on the issues that he’s dealing with here in Pennsylvania, and I think that we will be able to do that as we go forward. You will see a much greater emphasis by this governor than the previous governor on trying to address, to put together a sincere and a real resolution to this dispute, as opposed to a consent order that has created more questions than it has provided answers.
Hugh Baird: Thank you very much for the call, Randy. That’s a big issue. That’s one that we’ve dealt with in the past, and we’ll be going down the road. Senator, we’re going to turn back to Philip. Philip, you’re live with Senator Costa. Go ahead.
Philip: Yes. Senator, nice calling you.
Senator Jay Costa: Thank you.
Philip: We need to know—that’s the people of Pennsylvania—exactly where you, the governor and our party stands on minimum wage. Enough rhetoric and bull crap about everything that’s going on. Do we stand for it or against it, and what and when are we going to do something?
Senator Jay Costa: I stand 100 percent in support of increasing our minimum wage. I believe that it needs to be at a $10.10 level over the course of the next couple of years, as has been proposed by our colleague here in the Senate, Senator Tina Tartaglione, who has been a long-time champion of increasing the minimum wage. I supported it in the past so I will continue to support it.
When you look around the surrounding states around Pennsylvania, when you look at New York and New Jersey and Maryland and Ohio, all those states have implemented a minimum wage that is greater than the $7-something we have now, the $7.25 we have in place today. They’re all at $9.00 or roughly or very close to $9.00 an hour. And at least, I think, one of those states I mentioned is working towards $10.00 in the course of a couple of years.
So the conversation needs to take place now. We have a rally up here that’s going to take place very soon here in Harrisburg along those lines. And we believe that it does a number of things. First of all and foremost, it does not have the negative impact on businesses as people portray it to be. And I think what it does, it raises the level of awareness or the ability of folks to live a decent life relative to their income. When you talk about a $7.25 amount, you have folks who are working full-time who live below the federal poverty level. That’s simply unacceptable.
We can’t go from $7.25 to $10.10 over the course of months. We have to build upon that, and that’s what we’re talking about doing. There are some bills that Republicans have introduced here in the Senate, but not quite as what I think is robust as they need to be to position Pennsylvania to be a leader among the states in this region, or at least compete with the surrounding states that are all going towards increasing the minimum wage.
So I stand firmly behind it, I know Governor Wolf does, our Senate Democratic Caucus stands behind it as well to increase the minimum wage.
Hugh Baird: Philip, thank you very much for the call. Again, if you have a question for Senator Costa, you can press *3 on your keypad and we’ll get you on the line as quickly as possible. Senator, we’re going to go back to the callers now and we’re going to go to Lynette. Lynette, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Lynette: Good evening, Senator Costa.
Senator Jay Costa: Hi, Lynette.
Lynette: Hi. Piggybacking on what the previous caller talked about, minimum wage, and you talked about a livable wage. Because people I know, they are not—they can’t live off of $7.25. And even if we get the minimum wage raised, I’m looking at people who live in public housing, they can’t make it either because then their rent goes up. Part two about a livable wage, what about the people who have college degrees? What do we do about that?
Senator Jay Costa: In terms of them achieve a greater wage, do you mean?
Lynette: Yes. Yes, because there are some who have college degrees—masters—who are working for minimum wage. That’s why a lot of our students leave Pittsburgh and leave western Pennsylvania, because they can’t find decent jobs.
Senator Jay Costa: There’s no question that that is a contributing factor to folks who leave our region. And I would tell you that I think we have to do something about maintaining particularly our folks who are leaving our institutions here, graduating and then leaving our region. And it’s precisely related to opportunities, and it’s related to the wage level along those lines.
We have to do what we can. And we’re continuing to pursue other opportunities along the lines of growing jobs in Pennsylvania that are good-paying, family-sustaining jobs. When we talk about the minimum wage, that’s one wage in which we can achieve that. But as you said earlier, even if we go to $8.50 or so, that’s still not where we need to be. We have to do more along those lines.
I would tell you that we have been working to grow jobs in Pennsylvania. We have what’s called a PA Works program. We have a series of bills that are aimed at making investments in a variety of ways to help stimulate our economy, and to allow an opportunity for our local businesses and our business owners to be able to grow jobs and create jobs in Pennsylvania, where they’ll be able to provide a sustainable wage, which I think is important.
So we’re cognizant of that, and we have to do what we can along those lines to grow those jobs. But it’s not easy. We’ve given a lot of business tax cuts over the course of the past several years—$1 billion-plus—and with the anticipation or the expectation or the belief that the business community would then take those tax savings and then reinvest them back into the region and into the businesses, and to grow jobs and to increase wages. That part hasn’t happened, so while we’ve been sympathetic to the business climate here in the Commonwealth, business tax climate, we’ve been disappointed that we’ve not seen the reciprocation—they’re not reciprocating, I should say—with respect to what their part of the bargain has been, and that’s been disappointing.
Hugh Baird: Lynette, thank you very much for the call. We appreciate that. Senator, we’re going to go back to the callers. We’re going to go to Michael. Michael, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa. Michael, are you there?
Michael: Yes. Hello.
Senator Jay Costa: Hi, Michael.
Michael: Hi, Senator. It’s nice that you’re doing this. What my question is about is I am on the no-caller list for telephone solicitors, and I have been for years. And it seems to work only off and on. And I recently renewed my registration with both the state and federal lists a few months ago, but they’re starting to call me up again. As a matter of fact, I got two today. And the thing is, they give you an option to press a number that will supposedly remove your name from the list, and that never works. So if you press a number where you get to talk to somebody, they very often hang up on you without even saying anything when you tell them, even politely, “Please remove me from the list.” So that’s what it’s like if you try to do things polite.
Now, a few months ago when this was going on, I kind of got less polite with these people and very firm and whatever. But anyway, they actually started getting vulgar with me, and more than once like even insulted my dead mother. So what good are these no-call lists if you get on them and you can’t—it seems as though people don’t pay attention to them.
Another thing before you answer is one thing they do is if you ask them to quit calling you, sometimes they say “Okay.” But then within a few days, you look at your caller id, it will be supposedly another company. So it’s like they’re trading your name around.
Senator Jay Costa: Well, I think that what I’ll ask you to do, Michael, is give my office a call and ask for Elaine, and we will get in touch with the attorney general’s office to make certain that we get to the bottom as to why your name continues to appear on some of these lists. My guess is that they may believe that they fall within one of the very limited exceptions to the do not call list. That’s what we need to find out, and I’m happy to be able to do that with you. Thanks, Michael.
Hugh Baird: Thank you very much for the call. Again, if you have a question for Senator Costa, you can press *3 on your keypad. And we’re moving through a number of questions here so the wait’s not too long. We’re going to go to Marsha now. Marsha, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Marsha: Thank you very much. My question is partly a budget question and partly a humanity question, and that is I was wondering what the focus is going to be on reducing the prison population in Pennsylvania is part of it. And then the second part is decriminalizing marijuana. Actually, I’d prefer to have it legalized so we could have the same revenue problems that Colorado has right now where they’re bursting at the seams. But I’d just like your thoughts on both of those. Thank you.
Senator Jay Costa: Well, with respect to the latter question, decriminalizing marijuana, I don’t think you’re going to see that happen any time soon in Pennsylvania. I don’t think that there’s the will in the General Assembly to even have that conversation. We’re struggling to even get passed here a medical marijuana piece of legislation. Overwhelming passed the Senate, which I supported and my other colleagues. I believe we passed it 45 to five if I’m not mistaken, or 47 to three. Unfortunately we’re not able to get our colleagues in the House of Representatives to support it to the same degree.
So my first focus along those lines will be to get medical marijuana available to the folks who need it, and to provide the great level or comfort and support and assistance who have been suffering with a number of conditions that we need to address.
With respect to prison and prison costs, I’m happy to report to you that we’ve put into place two years ago a Senate Democratic initiative, the Justice Reinvestment Act, where we participated and had a lot of the work done on it. It basically provides a variety of things to really divert individuals from going into our prisons. It relates to things about providing care and treatment as opposed to housing in individuals who have been incarcerated who have been convicted. That’s having some success. We’ve reduced—we were on a trend to go, I believe, up to like 55,000 or 56,000 inmates across Pennsylvania had we not made any changes. Now we’re reversing that trend and the trend is now going in the opposite direction. We have more folks, I think, incarcerated at the end of this year than we had for a number of years before. [Did the senator actually mean more folks incarcerated?] So we’re working to reduce the number of individuals who are incarcerated, which in turn reduces our costs along those lines.
The savings that we achieve, part of the savings that we achieve, we then take those savings and we turn them around and reinvest them back into our communities. We reinvest them again into additional programming to allow for folks to be addressed in the community, as opposed to being incarcerated. We’re investing resources back into our local municipal police departments to help them and assist them on the front end of fighting crime and crime prevention programs. Those are some of the things that we’re doing along those lines, and we’ll continue to work towards that end.
We’re very fortunate in Pennsylvania. We have a very, very good secretary of corrections, Secretary Wetzel, who I think is exceptional. And I’m very pleased that although he was appointed in the Corbett administration, Governor Wolf has chosen to keep him here as our secretary because of his creativity and his innovative approach to how we deal with our inmate population in Pennsylvania, and it doesn’t become one of those budget lines that continues to grow disproportionately than other lines do.
So we’re real pleased about where we’re going, that direction. And the goal is to keep folks out of our prisons, first and foremost with treatment, but also with crime prevention programs and other programs that reduce that number.
Hugh Baird: Marsha, thank you very much for you call. Senator, we’re going to go back to the callers. If you have a question for Senator Costa, you can press *3 on your keypad. Senator, we’re going to go to a question about Ardmore Boulevard. Laurie, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Laurie: Hi. How are you today?
Senator Jay Costa: I’m great.
Laurie: I’m calling regarding the building that’s on the corner of Braddock and Ardmore that’s been vacant for a very long time. It looked like they were going to try and get somebody in there and fix up the building. Then a bulldozer came in and took a big chunk out of the side, the windows are gone, and now they’ve put a big fence around it. Do you have any idea of the future?
Senator Jay Costa: Yes. Yes. I’m very familiar with the building. It’s right down the street from my home, I think as you know, the EPI Building. We are working very closely with the borough council. Councilman Tomasik [phonetic 00:44:33] in particular has demonstrated a very significant interest in this, as well as myself and the [CBC? 00:44:41], which Ross Nese, Forest Hills resident, is the head of.
We’re working right now with a group of folks to purchase the building and try to—it needed to be demoed, and we’re working towards that end. And there are some ideas that have been circulated that I really can’t talk about right now, but rest assured that we’re working towards a solution to clean up what I think is a very bad eyesore. But I’m happy to report to you that progress is being made, and whenever folks get the plans together to submit to council through the appropriate planning process and the council process and the like, we will have a positive resolution that I believe will provide for an appropriate entry into, as we start to go into the park and the business community in Forest Hills, that would be consistent with needs to be done along Ardmore Boulevard; but also make certain that it takes into consideration the impact and the aesthetics as it transitions up the hill, up Braddock Road, into the residential community.
So we have to be cautious about that. And I’m well aware of it and I’m going to be an integral part of that conversation as we go forward, to bring the appropriate resolution to that. But you’re correct. We’ve done a lot of great things in Forest Hills and we’re going to continue to do that. But we first and foremost need to address this particular issue, and I think we will. Over the course of the next six to nine months you’ll see activity taking place.
Hugh Baird: Laurie, thank you very much. Senator, we’re going to go back to the callers now. We’re going to go to Jonathan. Jonathan, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Jonathan: Thank you very much, Senator.
Senator Jay Costa: Hi, Jonathan.
Jonathan: Hi, hi. We finally, after years of effort by a lot of people, including you, Senator, passed Act 89, providing some funding for public transportation to prevent further destructive cuts in service. But it was never adequate, and we’re told legislatures want it spent on deferred maintenance, which is good, and debt repayment, which I suppose is necessary, and minimally for service. And we have a lot of areas that lost service where it was used and did as well as other public transit service that haven’t been able to get them back. Baldwin Borough, you’ve certainly heard about. Moon Township. And what can we do to get some funding to restore service? The county executive says he doesn’t want to use any of the drink tax, any more the drink tax, because he doesn’t want to increase funding unless there is a state match. What can we do to provide a modest amount of additional money to restore some of the service that was cut only because of financial shortfalls of the lack of funding? And over the long term…
Senator Jay Costa: Here’s what I can say—
Jonathan: …Act 89 only will last eight more, six more years, I think.
Senator Jay Costa: Yeah. Two things. On that part of it, the replacement of the revenue from the Turnpike Commission, between now and the next couple of years, we have to seriously address how we fund that transit. And we will do that, and we will not put a hole in that transit budget across the Commonwealth. We will be responsible and make sure that that happens.
With respect to the use of the resources to Act 89, I know, Jonathan, that they ramp up over the course of five years, till we reach a plateau where it’s about $2.5 billion. I understand the concern that folks have talked about, about the reinstituting routes, and I know I deal with that issue up on Greensburg Pike and the East Hills. I know the Baldwin folks [have raised? 00:48:45] a significant concern. I believe that those issues are being discussed at this point in time. And I know that as more revenue starts to come in, Jonathan, I think you’ll start to see shifting away a little bit from the maintenance side of it and more maybe going towards the reinstitution of routes.
That’s my goal. That’s the charge that I provided to my appointee on that board. As Democratic leader, I have an appointment to that Port Authority board. I chose Senator Jim Brewster to serve in that capacity. I think he’s serving as an officer there, so he’s very much engaged in those conversations. And Senator Brewster has been diligent in working to make sure that we talk, have a serious discussion about reinstituting various routes, or modifying routes to capture more folks, to be able to pick more and more folks up, to increase ridership. So we’re working towards that end. It’s going slower than I had hoped, but I think that I will continue to have the conversation with Senator Brewster as well as the executive director of the Port Authority, who I think also needs to understand that that needs to be a focus and an emphasis as we go forward. Thanks, Jonathan.
Hugh Baird: Thank you very much for the call, Jonathan. Senator, we’re going to go back to the callers. We’re going to go to Liz who has a campaign finance question for you. Liz, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Liz: Hello. Thanks for giving people a voice. Many of us feel that our lives are completely controlled by people like the Koch brothers and big oil, etc. That everything, we’re just losing it. And I hope that there’s someplace, something regards campaign reform will happen so that these people can be stopped and we can feel some power when we go to vote. All right? Thanks.
Senator Jay Costa: That’s a great, great point, and I’ve been working on that issue. Years back, I joined a team with Senator Jane Earll from Erie, a Republican senator and myself, championing campaign finance reform. She left the Senate two years ago, so the last two years and even this year again, I’ve picked that mantle and have made it a major part of our reform package, my reform package that we’re talking about.
I just went through a campaign cycle. As Democratic leader, my job is to get Democrats elected in Senate seats all across Pennsylvania. And, quite frankly, it was extremely offensive the amount of money that was spent over the course of the past year. And we have to put limits, we have to make certain that people know who are making contributions. They cannot hide behind these independent expenditure groups, these 529 groups and the like. We have to bring some sanity back to this discussion.
I have been proposing the campaign finance rules and laws that we have—should have—in Pennsylvania limiting the number of dollars individuals can contribute, similar to what they do in Pittsburgh, just like what they do in Philadelphia, just like they do at the federal level. We in Pennsylvania are one of the few states that don’t have campaign finance limits and regulations in place that are more open, more transparent, and don’t distort the process to effectuate situations where, if you’re wealthy and have money you can dump into these races, or other folks who want to contribute and influence those races, we have to have limitations along those lines.
The second part of that conversation is really what’s going to take place at the federal level. We’ve had at least two very difficult-to-understand campaign finance rulings that came out of our Supreme Court—very disturbing—but they’ve had a significant impact not only on Pennsylvania but across the country with the dollars that are then being put in. You mentioned the Koch brothers. I think I read recently they’re going to invest about $800 million or so in races around the country. That’s just…it just blows my mind that that kind of money is going to be used, influence from the special interest groups and just a couple people.
So it’s a major issue. One of the things that I’m working on—and I will, again, be rolling that legislation out, and we’re going to have a greater conversation, in my view. Because I think Governor Wolf would recognize and understand and appreciate the value and the role that campaign limits will play as we go forward.
Hugh Baird: Thank you very much for the call. Senator, we’re going to go back to the callers here. We’re going to bring on Maria. Maria, go ahead. You’re live with Senator Costa.
Maria: Good evening, Senator.
Senator Jay Costa: Hi, Maria.
Maria: I am a new resident of the Pittsburgh area. I’m only here less than a year, and I’m very unfamiliar with the whole system here. I try and read the local newspapers to get some kind of an input. But coming from central Pennsylvania, my question is I have been plagued by a company or whatever to reduce your light bill, your energy bill.
Now, they’re so over-passionate about this. They want your information over the phone, which I will not give. I may be 83 years old but I’m not stupid. Not yet. So my question is they’re so over-passionate, sometimes getting three calls a day, and calling as late as 8:00 at night. It just doesn’t make sense. And there is no recourse. They’ve never put it in the newspaper as to what the criteria is on this energy thing to reduce your bill. Is there an income level that you have to qualify for? There’s no advertisement, nothing in the newspaper at all about this, and it seems very strange to me.
Senator Jay Costa: Thank you very much for your call, Maria. What we have in place is we deregulated the delivery of electricity in the Commonwealth a number of years ago—I think it was 1996 or 1997 when we did that—which means that companies would be able to—it was open, territories were open, to be able to contact consumers as it relates to the delivery, one aspect of the delivery of the electricity to them. And these companies compete, and they work towards trying to get customers, and they try to drive the price down. And that’s what we said. And what it has done, it has provided for a lower electricity rate for folks because there is competition. And I think that’s what folks look at.
I do agree that I think that they have become a little aggressive or too aggressive in the market, and one of the things that we’ve talked about with the PUC, particularly with one of my former staff attorneys, Gladys Brown, who is now a PUC commissioner. We have talked with Gladys a number of times about this issue and how we can work with them to make certain that these entities, these businesses—or utilities, I should say, I guess—they don’t cross the line with respect to their marketing activities. So it sounds like we need to rein them in again. But this is a direct result of the deregulation of electricity in Pennsylvania, and it allows us to drive out a lower cost for our electricity. That’s why you see what they’re doing.
And you don’t have to pick any of them. You can not pick anyone. And then you’re in Duquesne Light Service territory, so you would just simply, as I understand it, to Duquesne Light entity that they have. They have a company there that provides a discounted rate as well. So you could pick one of those other companies and they won’t bother you anymore, or you can allow it to go to default, which it sounds like you may have done and that’s why they’re reaching out to you to try to solicit you to be one of their customers.
Hugh Baird: Thank you very much for the call. I know, Senator, you have some comments relative to—but let’s see if we can one more call here.
Senator Jay Costa: Let’s get one more call.
Hugh Baird: We’re going to get Joyce. Go ahead, you’re going to be live with Senator Costa. Have to be quick here. Go ahead, Joyce.
Joyce: Hi, Senator Costa. I’m a senior citizen on the south side of Pittsburgh, and so we have the accumulated leftover paint and hazardous waste items. And I wondered if there could be a plan for the garbage pickup to expand to once a month or every two months for waste items? Currently the locations that they provide are so far away and cost too much to have someone take them for us.
Senator Jay Costa: So let me take a look at that with the city of Pittsburgh. I will communicate with their chief of operations who has jurisdiction, I think, over environmental services or how those programs operate. And if you could do me a favor, give me a call. I will get an answer for you. Give my district office a call and ask for Elaine at (412) 241-6690. Ask for Elaine. And we’ll be able to get an answer to that question for you, what their plans or how we could more efficiently address the concern that you raised, because I think it’s an important environmental issue that needs to be addressed. We simply have to make it more accessible. Those types of pickups and the like need to be more accessible and there needs to be more of them, too, for environmental reasons. So thank you very much. Give our office a call and we’ll go from there.
Hugh Baird: Senator, I know you have some closing comments today.
Senator Jay Costa: Yes. I just want to thank everyone for participating in these telephone town halls. I think they’ve been helpful for us to get a pulse of what’s going on, not only in our district but some of the issues that are impacting folks both locally—like we heard about the UPMC/Highmark issue—but also thing related to the environmental issues regarding trash collection and things of that nature. So I’d like to say thank you to all of our listeners.
I know we have a number of other folks who have questions we weren’t able to get to. We will be doing another town hall meeting very soon. I would also encourage you to reach out to us, either through e-mail or also through our Facebook page. You can look at senatorcosta.com and also the Facebook area. So reach out to us in a variety of ways and we’ll try to respond to your questions. And again, you can always call the office and ask for me at (412) 241-6690. I’m still here in Harrisburg today. I’ll be back in Pittsburgh tomorrow. I’d be happy to answer any questions or set up any meetings that folks like to have going forward.
So, Hugh, thank you for being the moderator for today, and thank all of you for listening.
Hugh Baird: Thank you very much for everybody who has joined us this evening. We appreciate you sharing the evening with us. Thank us.
Senator Jay Costa: Goodnight.