Pennsylvania lawmakers have re-introduced a proposal in the state House that would ban cell phone and texting for all drivers and impose stricter rules for teen drivers.

“I’m going to be fighting very, very hard in my time in the House to get this done,” state Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-153rd Dist, said on Monday.

The latest bill, House Bill 330, combines some ingredients from two bills considered last session — House Bill 67, which set passenger and cell phone restrictions for teen drivers, and House Bill 2070, which would have prohibited all drivers from using hand-held cell phones and text messaging but allow cell phone use if a hands-free device is used.

The new proposal comes one week after Pennsylvania received a failing grade for driving safety legislation from a national safe driving advocacy group. Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, an alliance of consumer, health, safety and insurance groups, ranked Pennsylvania as one of the seven worst performing states when it comes to the adoption of 15 overall basic laws the group believes are essential to reducing deaths and injuries on the nation’s highways and reducing health care and other costs.

The group, which released its annual Roadmap to State Highway Safety Laws last week, determined that Pennsylvania, through 2010, enacted only 6 ½ of 15 basic safe driving laws overall and only 3 ½ of the 7 laws it proposes for safe teen driving.

Pennsylvania received an overall “Danger” rating when it comes to basic laws, the group finding that the “state falls dangerously behind” in adoption of the 15 key recommended lifesaving laws.

“We’ve had hearing after hearing after hearing on this so there’s not much new ground to cover. And the evidence is pretty clear Pennsylvania got an F for its driving laws. We need to get an A and one of the ways we can begin working toward that A is by passing comprehensive distracted driving legislation like the one I’ve proposed,” Shapiro said.

Read the full article here.

State Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-153, announced that he intends to introduce legislation to statutorily eliminate the legislative surplus and circulated a memo to his colleagues asking for co-sponsorship of his legislation.

In December, the General Assembly audit, completed by independent auditors from Ernst & Young and unanimously approved by the Legislative Audit Advisory Commission, found that the legislature ended the 2010 fiscal year with a $188,554,281 legislative surplus. The audit recommended that Pennsylvania adopt a policy to limit the legislative surplus.

“Most states have policies in place to either prohibit legislative surpluses or to limit them,” said Shapiro. “I believe we should eliminate the legislative surplus in Pennsylvania and, given the challenging fiscal climate we face as we prepare for the upcoming budget, we ought to use the current surplus to address the needs of Pennsylvanians.”

Shapiro’s legislation would eliminate the surplus completely but includes a provision to allow for limited emergency spending authority by the legislature in the event the budget cannot be passed by the June 30 deadline, and only if authorized by the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate.

The audit documents can be viewed online at www.pahouse.com/Shapiro.

Read the full article here.

Seniors gathered in the community room at the Plaza Apartments Jan. 20 to hear about transportation options available now that the Abington senior bus is no more.

State Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-153, organized a group of representatives from SEPTA and TransNet to discuss free or reduced-fare methods for senior to get around.

“I want to ask two things from you,” Shapiro told those in attendance.

“First, I want to ask you to be good listeners. Second, I want you to be my ambassadors, and tell other folks about these options. It is easier to keep these programs if we know that people are making good use of them.”

Shapiro listened as seniors criticized the now-defunct Abington Township-funded senior bus, which was cut for budgetary reasons at the start of 2011. He explained that, while he had nothing to do with the decision to end the service, he did recognize the need to inform seniors of the alternatives.

Rochelle Cullbreath, a spokeswoman for SEPTA, spoke to the group about free rides for seniors.

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Shapiro, who stated that he often comes to the Plaza Apartments for town hall meetings, said he organized the information session, along with two others in the area, so that seniors can find convenient and affordable ways of getting around.

He also came to share some good news.

Shapiro kicked off the meeting by sharing with the group that his fourth child, Reuben, was born Jan. 12, and his wife and the baby are doing well.

“I trudged to Abington Hospital in the Jan. 12 snowstorm and we got there safe and sound. I wanted to share the good news with my friends here at the Plaza,” Shapiro said.

Read the full story here.

As the House prepares to roll out a bill next week to require a user-friendly, online database for taxpayers, Senate officials today said it is a priority for senators and Senate leaders.

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Lawmakers failed last session to get a version on the governor’s desk.

It’s a priorty for Republican Gov. Tim Corbett, who talked about it during his campaign.

Another Corbett campaign pledge — eliminating or reducing the Legislature’s $188 million surplus — got a boost today from an unlikely source: a Democratic House member.

State Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, said he intends to introduce legislation to eliminate the legislative surplus by law, and circulated a memo to his colleagues asking for support.

Shapiro chaired a legislative audit committee that found, based on an independent audit, the Legislature ended the 2010 fiscal year with a $188.5 million legislative surplus.

“Most states have policies in place to either prohibit legislative surpluses or to limit them,” said Shapiro. “I believe we should eliminate the legislative surplus in Pennsylvania and, given the challenging fiscal climate we face as we prepare for the upcoming budget, we ought to use the current surplus to address the needs of Pennsylvanians.”

The Senate’s version of a taxpayer database (Senate Bill 105) has been reintroduced and co-sponsors include political caucus leaders and President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County.

In the House, the State Government Committee on Monday will consider a bill by Rep. Jim Christiana, R-Beaver County.

“We are much less interested in which version gets done than we are in getting the database up and running,” Arneson said. “We are optimistic that one of these two bills can be sent to Gov. (Tom) Corbett during the first six months of his administration.”

Corbett said during the campaign that taxpayers should be able to see how government spends money.

House Bill 15 would establsh a website called “PennWATCH.” The database of state spending would cover the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The Treasurer’s Office would maintain it.

The legislation could be among the first bills the Republican-controlled House considers. Republicans took control of the chamber in the November election for the first time since 2006. Republicans control the governor’s mansion and both chambers for the first time in eight years.

A bill similar to Christiana’s won House support last session but didn’t make it through the Senate. The Senate passed a separate bill.

Read the full article here.

State Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-153, will host representatives from SEPTA and CCT Connect Jan. 20 for three information sessions on free and low-cost transportation services for senior citizens in our area.

Information on Senior Citizen Transit ID cards, Paratransit and Shared-Ride Programs and other transportation services will be available.

The sessions will take place from 10 a.m. to noon at Holy Redeemer Village Community Room, 1551 Huntingdon Pike, Huntingdon Valley (open to Village residents only); 1:30 to 3 p.m. at The Plaza Apartments Community Room, 1250 Greenwood Ave., Jenkintown; and 3:30 to 5 p.m. at Rydal East Lobby, 1570 The Fairway, Jenkintown.

For more than a month, southbound I-95 motorists have been confronted with a digitalized message on a sign spanning the highway in Lower Chichester, just before entering Delaware.

As of Jan. 1, 2011, talking on hand-held cell phones and texting while driving would become illegal in the First State, it advised.

Obviously ignorance of the law isn’t expected to fly in Delaware courts when motorists get caught, cell phone-in-hand.

Delawareans took the warning to heart. Last week Delaware merchants reported an increase in sales of devices that would enable motorists to keep both hands on the wheel while talking on the phone.

Pennsylvanians also need to heed the warning, considering their proximity to Delaware.

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According to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation, there have been at least 6,877 accidents where hand-held cell phones and at least 397 where hands-free phones have been contributing factors in the state since 2003.

While the state House passed bans on both a year ago, the Senate in May gutted the legislation to only making it a secondary offense for junior drivers to talk or text while driving.

“It was an irresponsible vote that will ensure that people will continue to die on Pennsylvania’s roads,” state Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, one of the House bill’s sponsors, said last year.

He is planning to re-introduce the bill next week.

“I already have about 50 co-sponsors — an almost equal number of Democrats and Republicans. This has never been a partisan issue,” said Shapiro.

He noted that a recent poll showed 85 percent of Pennsylvanians support a handheld cell-phone ban while driving.

The legislation has the support of the Pennsylvania State Police, the District Attorneys Association and the staffs of health care institutions such as the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who have seen the injuries and death caused by the distracted driving of cell-phone use.

It also has the support of local law enforcement officers such as Collingdale Police Chief Bob Adams. He has pulled over drivers who have forsaken their steering wheels for phones, food, and cigarettes.

“I ask them, ‘How are you steering the car?’ One woman said she was using her knees. It’s absurd, some of the things you see,” said Adams.

Absurd is the operative word. Common sense dictates that any distraction in driving increases the odds of an accident. Having one or no hands on the wheel — the navigational device for a 4,000 pound piece of mobile machinery — is just plain ludicrous.

We’d like to think enough Pennsylvanians will get burnt by cell-phone bans while driving in neighboring states that they won’t need a law to stop the same irresponsible behavior in their home state.

However, Americans, in their increasing need to be ever-connected with not only friends, but strangers, have already proven that common sense does not prevail when it comes to cell-phone use.

Read the full article here.

Just a few moments ago, I raised my right hand and again took the oath to represent the 153rd Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. I am profoundly grateful to the thousands of supporters like you who have invested time, resources and energy into my campaign and our collective future.

I enter this coming session with renewed drive to improve our economy and create jobs, balance the budget in the face of a $5 billion deficit, champion further government reform, and deal with the many other challenges we face like protecting our environment from natural gas drilling.  As we face these challenging times, I am mindful that while we need to trim the size and cost of government, we must not solely balance our budget on the backs of Pennsylvanians who need the most help.

Today’s swearing-in ceremony ushered in a change in party leadership as the Republicans now control the state House, state Senate and will soon control the Governorship.  I am prepared to reach across the aisle and work with them as I have done in the past to benefit my district and all Pennsylvanians.  But make no mistake, I will also respectfully object when I think their agenda hurts Pennsylvanians and stand up for what I believe in and the reasons you sent me back to the House. The key is that at the end of the day, we move Pennsylvania forward together.

I am honored to continue to serve as your state representative. These will be difficult times to govern, but I am ready.  Please keep in touch.

All the best,

Josh

Here are 10 of the most capable state lawmakers. They might not be the flashiest. And maybe you’ve never heard of some of them.

This assessment isn’t about who is the smartest, who has the most clout or who is the most honest, though some of those attributes could be applied to the people below.

The question posed here is merely who would be highly effective at representing you if you had a problem to solve in state government.

Who is capable of handling an issue of importance to the district?

The criteria include being able to run a committee meeting efficiently (or use one to your advantage), argue on the floor for legislation or solve a problem in the bureaucracy.

Being a Republican in 2011 will be a big plus in getting things done. So the Democrats will have to work even harder.

Leaders are excluded. They are already in a position to get things done.

And this list, which includes conservatives and liberals, is totally separate from their politics.

They are:

• Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery County. He’s a cut above most others and seems like he’s congressional caliber. Little wonder. He was chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel. He ran the former Speaker’s Reform Commission in a bipartisan manner.

• Rep. John Bear, R-Lancaster County. A former consultant who advised state governments, Bear has had his cost-cutting ideas incorporated in the past two budgets even with a Democrat governor and Democrat control of the House. He knows state spending issues better than some of the “experts.”

• Sen. Jane Earll, R-Erie. She can be a pit bull. You want her on your side, not working against you. A former prosecutor, Earll sometimes sounds like a pit bull at committee hearings.

• Rep. Mike Gerber, D-Montgomery County. Despite being at the helm during the Democrats’ catastrophic losses in the November election, he has charisma and political lineage at work for him. Articulate and savvy, he’ll make a comeback.

• Rep. Curt Schroder, R-Chester County, the new chairman of the Gaming Oversight Committee. Though at times a bit too lawyerly, he can cut to the chase. He’s a top-caliber lawmaker.

• Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-York. Grandson of former Pittsburgh City Council President “Jeep” DePasquale, he’s got politics in his blood. He’s got a nose for being at the center of controversial issues. He’s still growing and a little wet behind the ears, but he has star potential.

• Rep. Tim Krieger, R-Hempfield. He’s the sleeper on the list. Cerebral and low-key, he’s been carefully studying what goes on at the Capitol since he was elected in 2008. His background as a naval officer and an attorney gives him a unique perspective. At big budget events in the 2009 crisis, you’d see him at odd hours quietly observing.

• Rep. Robert Freeman, D-Northampton. A bit too nice of a guy to play hardball, Freeman nonetheless is a student of state and local government. He knows government issues as well as anyone.

• Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne County. A former top staffer to former Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, she knows the executive and legislative branches. She’s always well prepared and professional.

• Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Bethlehem. This Lisa is also highly capable and effective. She is the model of a lawmaker you’d want going to bat for you. She’s tough, aggressive and savvy.

Read the full article here.

While Pennsylvania lawmakers failed this year to pass legislation that would impose stricter rules for teen drivers, some have pledged to continue the battle in the New Year.

“It is not a dead issue,” claimed state Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-153, who recently sent colleagues a letter seeking co-sponsors for the teen and distracted driving legislation he plans to introduce as soon as the new House convenes in January. “This is an issue I will not let die.”

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Shapiro said his next proposal will be “identical” to two bills considered last session -House Bill 67, which set passenger and cell phone restrictions for teen drivers, and House Bill 2070, which would have prohibited all drivers from using hand-held cell phones and text messaging but allow cell phone use if a hands-free device is used.

“This needs to be a bipartisan effort in order to get it done. We’re going to keep working at it. We’ll continue to build consensus around this issue,” Shapiro pledged. “This bill will save lives in Pennsylvania.”

Shapiro said he has heard from many constituents who “frankly expressed outrage” that the Senate did not adopt a House version of the distracted driving bill in May and added amendments that watered down the proposals, essentially killing the likelihood of passage.

Constituents, Shapiro said, are “pushing us to move forward and not give up on this issue.”

“And I assure them that I’m not giving up and I’m going to keep fighting to get this bill,” Shapiro said.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, a strong proponent of teen driving safety who took her safety message to more than 10,000 high school children this year, also continued her support for “common sense” restrictions for teen drivers.

“There is a brand new Legislature coming in January, new members coming from all parts of the commonwealth, and it seems to me this is a very important issue that they should undertake,” Ferman said. “If they need to start from scratch with new drafting and some new concepts in the way to tackle the problem, that’s certainly a reasonable approach. To ignore the issue is not.

“We have teenagers losing their lives and killing other people behind the wheels of vehicles. It seems to me that we have an obligation to impose some basic rules to allow them to learn how to navigate their vehicles before they have the opportunity to put the rest of us at risk on the road,” Ferman added. “All we’re talking about here is imposing some basic common sense legal restrictions on young, inexperienced drivers so they don’t hurt themselves and don’t hurt anybody else. That’s what this legislation should be about.”

Bouher pointed out that since his daughter’s death in 2008, while legislators bickered about proposed laws, more teens died on area roadways. In 20 days between Nov. 23 and Dec. 12 of last year, four Pottstown area teenagers were killed.

On Nov. 23, Pottsgrove students Andrew Case, 17, and Michael Cantamaglia, 16, died in a crash on Route 724 in East Coventry. On Dec. 12, Pottstown High School students Breanne Brothers, 15, and Andrea Antonio-Harris, 16, were killed in a violent crash on Route 100 in Upper Pottsgrove.

In both wrecks, teens were driving SUVs packed with five passengers. Both drivers, Thomas Kocon, 19, and Austin Ewers, 17, were charged in connection with the crashes. Kocon is awaiting sentencing on homicide by vehicle charges and Ewers is incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility for driving under the influence of marijuana.

“How many more of our children in our area are going to die, or ruin their lives before we, the people, decide that our elected officials need to push this issue?” Bouher pondered.

The state House overwhelmingly approved House Bill 67 in April 2009.

However, in May 2010, the Senate amended the House bill in three significant ways, when it comes to cell phone and texting bans, passenger restrictions and driver training hours.

In July, House members rejected what they called the Senate’s “watered down” version and vowed to fight to keep original, tougher language in the bill.

Essentially, the House vote to non-concur sent the proposal to conference committee status, where negotiators from both the House and Senate tried to hammer out a compromise over the summer. Disagreements between House and Senate members, particularly concerning whether restrictions should be primary or secondary offenses, delayed action on the proposals.

Lawmakers reportedly had been negotiating potential resolutions to the sticking points that prevented the proposed law from being adopted but legislative breaks for the November elections and the holidays further prevented lawmakers from getting any of the distracted driving bills adopted by year’s end.

Now, any legislation dealing with the issue will have to be proposed anew when the next Legislature, with new members elected in November, returns to work next month.

House Bill 67 would have made it a primary offense for the holder of a learner’s permit or a junior driver’s license to text or talk on a cell phone while driving, except when reporting an emergency or an accident. In May, the Senate amended the bill to make such conduct a secondary offense, meaning police could only cite teen drivers for using a cell phone if they were stopped for another traffic violation or if they were involved in an accident.

In addition to weakening proposed cell phone bans, the Senate voted 44-3 in May to weaken proposals dealing with passenger restrictions and driving training hours for teens.

Under the original House bill sponsored by state Rep. Joseph F. Markosek, D-25, teen drivers could have only one nonfamily passenger younger than 18. But under the Senate’s amended version, teen drivers who went the first six months of having a license without causing a crash would have been allowed to transport up to three nonfamily passengers younger than 18.

Markosek’s bill also would have expanded behind-the-wheel training hours for teens from the current 50 hours to 65 hours — 10 hours at nighttime and five hours in inclement weather. The Senate version removed the requirement for additional training.

Senators from more rural areas, where mass transit isn’t available and where teen drivers routinely travel with their siblings, friends and neighbors, and carpool to events that are long distances from home, lobbied for the amendment to the passenger restrictions. Opponents of passenger limitations for junior license holders see the restrictions as inconveniences.

Senators who supported making cell phone and texting violations secondary offenses claimed policing them as primary offenses would be impossible because there isn’t enough manpower and claimed educational efforts can increase compliance to a ban.

Read the full article here.

Tom Barnes of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes:

The General Assembly’s reserve account, dubbed a “slush fund” by some legislative critics, has been reduced but remains robust.According to an audit of legislative finances released Tuesday, the reserve fund ended fiscal 2010 on June 30 with a $188 million surplus, down $13 million, or 6 percent, from a year earlier, said State Rep. Josh Shapiro (D., Montgomery).

He chairs the bipartisan Legislative Audit Advisory Commission, which hires accountants to do the annual audit. Shapiro noted, approvingly, that the size of the reserve fund has been gradually dropping, from $230 million two years ago to $201 million last year, and now to $188 million.

The reserve fund has been defended by legislative leaders as necessary for keeping themselves and their staff on the payroll if a state budget isn’t ready by the annual deadline of July 1. That happened in 2009, when the new state budget was more than 100 days late.

But some General Assembly critics think a kitty of $200 million or so is too large, especially when legislators will need to find ways to cut state spending. A deficit of at least $3 billion is being forecast for the fiscal year that starts July 1, and many agencies are facing budget cuts.

“We are in extraordinary fiscal times in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “We need to find every dollar in state government to save.”

A year ago, he noted, the audit commission had recommended drastically reducing or even eliminating the reserve fund, but that has not happened. Without some amount of reserve, legislative leaders fear that whoever is governor would have an edge in budget deliberations, because legislators won’t have their own independent budget expertise.

Sen. Pat Browne (R., Lehigh), another audit panel member, said he thinks the legislature should maintain a three-month reserve in case of a budget stalemate. At about $40 million per month in legislative spending, he said, that would necessitate a reserve fund of $120 million. He said that amount is “based on history,” when there have been cases of a budget being two or three months late.

Shapiro said he could agree to completely eliminating the surplus, but if that is done, some emergency spending authority should be given to the House speaker and the Senate president pro tem in case of a budget stalemate that goes beyond July 1.

The audit panel also said Tuesday that there was a slight reduction in funds spent by the state House, Senate, and legislative agencies in fiscal 2009-10. A total of $318 million went for staff salaries and benefits, paper, printing, and other office expenses; that was down from $327 million spent in fiscal 2008-09. The annual spending has been even higher than that in the past.

The complete audit report will be available in a couple of days on a House Web site: www.pahouse.com/shapiro.

Read the full article here.