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Senate of Pennsylvania
SENATE DEMOCRATIC WRAP-UP FOR
THE WEEK OF |
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By a unanimous vote, the Senate approved House Bill 1956, which will repeal the pay raises enacted for executive branch officials, judges, and legislators this summer. The measure was largely a mirror image of the Democratic-sponsored pay raise repeal amendment that was contained in House Bill 1539. However, in that legislation, the House and Senate could not agree on severability issues. The governor signed the bill into law as Act 72 of 2005.
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The Senate voted 42 to 8 in favor of Senate Bill 629, which would add mass transit employees to the list of officers and employees protected under a higher graded penalty in the state’s aggravated offense law. Under the bill, aggravated assault would rise to a first-degree felony, punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and up to 20 years in prison, if it results in “serious” bodily injury to a mass transit employee. Other physical injuries would constitute a second-degree felony, punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and up to 10 years in jail. Mass transit employees would join a list of 27 other categories of workers covered under the increased grading ranging from police officers to Children and Youth Services employees. The bill now goes to the House.
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The Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 775, which would amend the Interstate Compact for the Supervision of Adult Offenders to impose an application fee of up to $150 on offenders who wish to transfer their supervision from Pennsylvania to another state under the compact. If the fee were paid to a county, the county would be authorized to retain a percentage of the application fee for administrative expenses. The bill now goes to the House.
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The Senate voted 49 to 1 in favor of Senate Bill 868. The bill would amend the “Forest Reserves Municipal Financial Relief Law” to increase the payment in lieu of taxes for Commonwealth-owned forestlands. Currently, the payment to counties, townships, and school districts is 40 cents an acre. This bill would increase the payment to $1.20 an acre. The bill now goes to the House.
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