Finance Committee 11/19/02

The Senate Finance Committee met on Tuesday, November 19, 2002, and reported the following:

Senate Resolution 286 (PN 2338) (Mowery) This resolution directs the Joint State Government Committee to study and recommend potential changes to the current funding and benefits structure of the Comonwealth's two mandatory governmental pension plans, including the need, design and funding of any future cost-of-living adjustments.

House Bill 1700 (PN 4023) (Maher) This bill amends the Local Tax Enabling Act by increasing to $10,000 the maximum amount of income taxpayers may earn and be eligible for the low-income exemption. The bill also amends the definition of earned income and net profits to conform to the definitions that exist in the Tax Reform Code.

House Bill 1043 (PN 4626) (Dally) This bill resolves an issue involving pension benefits for 20 employees of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission who were formerly with the Joint Free Bridge Commission. The bill also permits an active SERS member, who is on paid leave as an appointed full-time state employee union officical to receive retirement credit for such period of leave.

House Bill 2402 (PN 4625) (Stevenson) This bill amends Title 24 (Public School Employee Retirement Code) to permit retired members to be employed by a school as a coach, director, instructor or sponsor of an extracurricular school activity without having their annuity benefit penalized.

 Finance Committee 10/9/02

The Senate Finance Committee met on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 and reported out the following bills:

Senate Bill 1478 (PN 2094) (D. White) This bill amends the Keystone Opportunity Zone Act and the Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone Act. It allows for the designation of up to 3,000 acres as subzones within each of the KOEZ's in the Commonwealth. It also allow all tax exemptions, deductions, abatements or credits to begin at the time a qualified person of business begins active conduct of trade or business so as not to lose any potential exemptions between the time of authorization and actual startup at a site. And lastly, it changes the sunset date to December 31, 2028.

House Bill 2591(PN 3878) (Bunt) This bill amends the County Pension Law by changing vesting rights and providing additional class options for county employees and county officers. It would apply to counties of the 2nd Class A through Eighth. Vesting rights would be reduced from 8 years to 5 years.The additional option is for the establishment of different class with a required 9% member contribution rate.

House Bill 2592 (PN 3748) (Pippy) This bill amends the Second Class County Code to provide for the purchase of service credit toward retirement for a few employees in Allegheny County who were previously employed with the county redevelopment authority.

 Finance Committee 6/19/02

The Senate Finance Committee met on Wednesday, June 19, 2002, and reported the following bills:

Senate Bill 1394 (PN 1912) (Orie) This bill amends the Second Class County Code to permit 3 current county employees who were formerly employed by the County Redevelopment Authority to purchase credit toward their county retirement for the time they spent as Redevelopment Authority employees.

Senate Bill 1395 (PN 1913) (Orie) This bill amends the Second Class County Code to permit Allegheny County employees to purchase credit toward their county retirement for their military active duty time interest free for a three year period. Those Allegheny County employees who are presently employed and already vested will also be permitted, for a three year period, to buy back their military time without paying interest.

Senate Bill 757 (PN 2121) (Piccola) This bill amends the Public School Employees' Retirement Code to permit an active member of the system to purchase up to five years of service credit for previous service as a school employee, teacher or instructor in an accredited Pennsylvania nonpublic elementary or secondary school or an accredited Pennsylvania licensed private school. Senator C. Williams offered an amendment to also include previous service as as school teacher or instructor of special education classes in an accredited Pennsylvania approved private elementary or secondary school.

Finance Committee 6/4/02

The Senate Finance Committee met on Tuesday, June 4, 2002, and reported the following bills.

Senate Bill 1342 (PN 1773) (Earll) This bill amends the Tax Reform Code to extend the net operating loss carry forward period from 10 to 20 years for businesses.

House Bill 1848 (PN 2407) (Stetler) This bill increases the cap of the Research and Development Tax Credit to $20 million per fiscal year. The credit is extended to the year 2010 and applies to fiscal years beginning July 1, 2002. The current cap is $15 million.

As Committed (7-4):

House Bill 165 (PN 142) (Curry) This bill amends the Tax Reform Code to exempt lawn care services from the sales and use tax. A motion by Senator A. Williams to table the bill failed on a party line vote 4 to 7. The motion to report the bill as committed passed on a party line vote of 7 to 4 which constituted an acceptance of the previous roll call in reverse order. The four negative votes were Democratic Senators Logan, A. Williams, C. Williams, and Wozniak.

Senate Bill 832 (PN 937) (Jubelier) This bill amends the Capital Facilities Debt Enabling Act by increasing the maximum amount of redevelopment assistance capital projects undertaken to $1,750,000,000. The current level which was last raised in 1999 is $1,2000,000,000. The five negative votes were cast by Republican Senator Corman and Democratic Senators Logan, A. Williams, C. Williams, and Wozniak.

Senate Bill 1269 (PN 2031) (C. Williams) This bill increases the cap of the Research and Development Tax Credit to $30 million per fiscal year. Senator C. Williams offered an amendment to the legislation to arrive at the $30 million because in it's original printer's number the figure was listed at $60 million.

House Bill 170 (PN 3941) (Lewis) This bill amends the Tax Reform Code by increasing the PIT tax forgiveness credit to $9,000 for each dependent claimed by a claimant. An amendment by Senator Earll created the $9,000 allowance. The original bill created a credit of only $8,500. Negative votes on the amendment and the motion to report the legislation were registered by Democratic Senators Logan and A. Williams as a result of Republican Chairperson Earll's failure to respond to a question concerning how the cost of the credit (estimated to be a total of $12 million per year) was going to be addressed in the upcoming budget negotiations.

Finance Committee 3/26/02

The Senate Finance Committee met on Tuesday, March 26, 2002 and reported out the following bills:

As Committed (unanimously):

Senate Bill 374 (PN 388) (Wenger) This bill amends the Public School Code to permit a school district to exempt from the school district's per capita tax any resident who has less than $15,000 of total income.

Senate Bill 1272 (PN 1839) (D. White) This bill permits retired members of the Public School Employees Retirement System to be employed by a school entity as a coach, director, instructor or sponsor of an extracurricular school activity without having their annuity benefit penanized. Amendment #0971 (Earll) removed language that would have prohibited the hiring of a retired school employee within two years of their retirement.

Senate Bill 1366 (PN 1840) (Conti) This bill amends the Fiscal Code to decrease the period in which an account may remain dormant from seven years to five years under the current unclaimed property law. Amendment #1079 (Earll) reduced the time period in which Treasury must notify holders of a declined delivery of property decision.

House Bill 2126 (PN 3499) (Benninghoff) This bill amends the Optional Tax Elimination Act to permit municipalities to eliminate the occupation assessment tax and replace it with an increase in the earned income tax, subject to voter approval. Amendment #1055 (Corman) provided that the governing body calculates the earned income tax using 2002 revenue calculations instead of 2000.