Posted by Mark Koenig on Wednesday, January 5, 2011
From The Delaware County Daily Times:
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.
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Posted by Josh Shapiro on Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Friends,
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
Posted by Mark Koenig on Monday, January 3, 2011
Brad Bumstead of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes:
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.
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Posted by Mark Koenig on Saturday, January 1, 2011
Carl Hessler of The Times Chronicle writes:
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.
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Posted by Mark Koenig on Thursday, December 16, 2010
The account, which critics call a “slush fund,” has fallen lately, to one lawmaker’s approval.
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.
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