00:00 - The following program is sponsored in part by customers

00:04 - bank.

00:17 - Welcome to the PC and Capital preview.

00:19 - I'm Larry Casper.

00:21 - Today the subject is transportation funding.

00:24 - In Pennsylvania.

00:25 - But first we're joined by Olya Schneider,

00:28 - politics reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

00:31 - Welcome to our program.

00:33 - Thanks for having me.

00:34 - You filed a story about pressure on Democratic.

00:37 - Senator John Fetterman to change parties.

00:41 - How did this get started?

00:45 - Yeah.

00:45 - So there's been a lot of speculation about,

00:49 - Senator John Fetterman and whether he wants to switch parties.

00:53 - And I think how it gets started is a bit of a complicated question.

00:57 - We've kind of seen Republicans courting him in a way, recently,

01:01 - but I think it's kind of been, a gradual build up to this point

01:06 - where the senator has had, various,

01:10 - I'd say, public, outspoken disagreements with members of his own party.

01:14 - He's gradually become more embraced by, Republicans.

01:20 - You know, when he first joined the Senate, he was made fun of and mocked,

01:23 - by Republicans.

01:25 - And now he is socializing, with Republicans.

01:28 - Maybe even more than Democrats.

01:31 - He goes on, Fox News a lot with, with different, right leaning hosts.

01:37 - And so I think especially recently,

01:40 - everyone has the midterms in mind.

01:44 - And so, Republicans see him as a potential chance

01:47 - to help them retain control of Congress,

01:51 - or of the Senate, in case

01:54 - it comes to that, if Democrats do really well in the midterms.

01:58 - And, Senator Fetterman

02:01 - keeps saying actually that he's not planning on switching parties,

02:05 - but the speculation kind of continues anyway.

02:08 - In part because of the Republicans courting him and also in part of

02:12 - just kind of the public disagreements that he's had with his own party.

02:16 - Well, earlier on, which issue is has Fetterman made waves within his own party?

02:23 - Yeah.

02:23 - So a really big one has been is real.

02:26 - And I think that is something where, the progressive wing of the party

02:31 - who feels like they worked really hard to elect and support John Fetterman,

02:35 - they kind of argue that he has betrayed his values that they elected him on.

02:41 - But he argues that he's always been a supporter of Israel

02:45 - and that his values haven't changed.

02:47 - But I think just given the, international landscape,

02:52 - in recent years and especially the recent, war in Iran,

02:57 - Senator Fetterman has been a huge outspoken

03:01 - supporter of this war even before, it started.

03:05 - He was outspoken about saying,

03:08 - I want the US and Israel, to bomb Iran.

03:12 - So that is a very big disagreement right now.

03:15 - And there's been other things like, Trump's bar room, some of his,

03:19 - a lot of his nominees, rhetoric

03:23 - about the about immigration and about, shutdowns

03:27 - and even just kind of the way he attacks members of his party,

03:32 - like he has used the term Trump Derangement syndrome,

03:36 - which is a common Republican attack against Democrats.

03:40 - But he argues that he still is a reliable Democratic voter.

03:45 - He says he would be a horrible Republican, and that he's just

03:48 - more of an independent thinker than kind of the traditional partizanship.

03:52 - Well, Alia, how this Fetterman's remarks about high,

03:56 - high profile issues compared to his voting record.

04:01 - I'd say that

04:02 - his voting record is the thing is, a lot of what is voted on in.

04:08 - Congress are not these kind of big bills that you hear everyone talking about.

04:14 - So his record is like more than 90%

04:17 - or so with his party, but the issues where he is

04:21 - straying from his party are like pretty hot topic, big issues.

04:26 - And there's definitely been

04:27 - plenty of times he's made made headlines for kind of being the deciding vote.

04:31 - And there have been times where he did

04:35 - kind of change and end up voting with his party.

04:39 - Kind of surrounding, funding for.

04:41 - DHS was one, where he was facing a lot of pushback.

04:45 - And I think with that, it was a lot of his opinions about, like,

04:49 - not wanting a shutdown

04:50 - when Democrats were kind of using that as a negotiation tactic.

04:53 - So I'd say most of the time he's voting with his party,

04:57 - but the times he's not, it's really standing out.

05:00 - How do Pennsylvanians feel about Fetterman's job performance overall?

05:06 - Yeah.

05:06 - So another interesting thing that kind of goes back to the start

05:09 - of this conversation is that he's more popular among

05:13 - Republicans in Pennsylvania than he is among Democrats.

05:18 - And so that is also something that fuels the speculation.

05:22 - But just because he's more popular among Republicans doesn't necessarily mean

05:26 - they would even want to elect him

05:27 - as a Republican like compared to other Republicans.

05:31 - But he's definitely

05:33 - garnered a lot of favor among, more conservative,

05:38 - Pennsylvanians who have been impressed and pleasantly surprised by his views.

05:43 - But he's, become very,

05:48 - I guess, disliked among the progressive

05:52 - wing of the of the of the Democrats especially, I mean, there's been, groups

05:57 - that they regularly protest outside of his office

06:01 - and call for him to step down.

06:03 - Aliya, what is Fetterman's relationship with fellow Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro?

06:10 - Their relationship is not great.

06:13 - I I'd say they have been kind of careful about it, but,

06:17 - then again, you know,

06:21 - Senator Fetterman kind of, spilled a little bit in his book about,

06:26 - you know, basically how he doesn't speak

06:29 - with with, Governor Shapiro

06:33 - and they kind of have an icy background that goes back to kind of before

06:38 - they were in their current positions that they're in.

06:42 - And it's something that

06:45 - hasn't necessarily been resolved publicly.

06:47 - And, but it's not like, the governor is out there

06:52 - attacking John Fetterman, like we see some other members of the party

06:56 - who are maybe eyeing his Senate seat.

06:59 - But I'd say icy is the way to to put it.

07:03 - Last question.

07:05 - The, what has Fetterman said about his future of being a Democrat?

07:09 - And after all, Republicans continue to watch him closely.

07:12 - It wouldn't hurt if they got another Republican right?

07:16 - Yeah.

07:16 - I mean, Republicans have been pretty open

07:20 - about either being open to supporting him.

07:23 - If he becomes Republican or actively wanting him to become a Republican.

07:28 - Sean Hannity of the,

07:31 - kind of right leaning, Fox News host literally told, Senator Fetterman

07:36 - that Donald Trump wants him to become a Republican and would support him.

07:42 - But John Fetterman has said repeatedly

07:46 - that he has no plans to leave the Democratic Party.

07:50 - I think the reason people are still talking about this

07:53 - is because there is some distrust, among the Democratic Party

07:58 - from people who feel like, John Fetterman has not been performing

08:02 - the way that they want him to in the way they were expecting him to.

08:05 - And because he, you know, is isn't afraid

08:08 - to kind of be, nontraditional and do his own thing.

08:12 - And also just kind of Republicans like, openly courting him,

08:16 - but he insists that he has no intentions of leaving the Democratic Party.

08:20 - Aliya Schneider, politics reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

08:24 - Thank you for joining us.

08:26 - Thanks for having me.

08:27 - More of the PC and Capitol preview.

08:29 - After a short break.

08:32 - Welcome back.

08:33 - Our guests today are the chairs, the House Transportation Committee

08:38 - for the minority, Representative Carrie Benning of and for the majority.

08:42 - Representative Ed Nelson, welcome to our program.

08:46 - Thank you.

08:47 - Representative Nielsen, let's get started with you.

08:49 - The governor's new budget proposal includes a funding change

08:52 - for public transit. What does he want to do?

08:56 - Well, what we want to do is that we want to take a piece of the sales tax revenue,

09:00 - which has shown.

09:01 - And just in the past few days, how collections are up.

09:05 - And it's a predictable revenue source.

09:08 - And this way, we don't have these arguments in the House and Senate

09:12 - to try and fund public transit, because public transit is important

09:16 - for all 67 counties.

09:18 - No matter what anybody says, your county does have public transit.

09:22 - Yes. Pittsburgh, Philadelphia.

09:25 - They have more than you, but it's all relative to population.

09:29 - So we want to make sure that that,

09:32 - they keep the economic engines going.

09:34 - The governor's plan that he did works currently.

09:39 - He did put some of that plan.

09:41 - So he put a banding is already coming from sales and taxes for public transit.

09:45 - Right. He merely wants to increase that.

09:47 - We want to increase it because cost I listen,

09:50 - every Pennsylvanian knows costs have gone up.

09:53 - And we continue to see that every every day.

09:56 - So it costs more to run the bus systems and to replace it.

10:00 - We've seen some of the systems, how they've broken down and caught fire, the

10:04 - because they're 60 years old.

10:07 - So it's time to replace those, those mechanisms.

10:10 - And that costs money, with the federal government

10:13 - not putting up as much as we believe they should.

10:17 - We have to fill that gap.

10:18 - And how big of an increase is the governor calling for?

10:21 - We're looking at a $250 million, gap just in the southeast region.

10:27 - And then if you add the Pittsburgh reason, that's 100.

10:30 - So altogether about 400 million.

10:32 - So I understand that would

10:34 - come out to about 1.75% increase over what we're currently dealing.

10:38 - Correct. But mind you taxes will not go up.

10:40 - This is this is money is collected with not an additional tax.

10:44 - So although we're taking a bigger piece of the sales tax tax itself,

10:49 - there is no increase in sales tax.

10:52 - And people say well no that's it's increasing.

10:55 - It's not.

10:56 - What we have to look at is that collections are up.

11:00 - We take a bigger percentage

11:02 - of that 6% more money from an existing existing fund.

11:06 - And and if you look at the area that uses the most of it,

11:09 - it also is the area that collects the most of it.

11:12 - And you take the five county area and Allegheny County, those six counties

11:16 - and Philadelphia, they get 46%, the entire state budget.

11:20 - That's where our tax base comes for our budget

11:23 - and get less than 19% back in services.

11:25 - So essentially

11:26 - they're asking to keep a little bit more of what they already pay into the pot.

11:31 - Because if you go to smaller counties and and I say

11:34 - all the time they don't mind helping each other.

11:37 - I mean, that's the key about Philadelphians.

11:39 - We don't mind a lot of brotherly love, insistently affection, as we say,

11:44 - we don't mind helping,

11:45 - but when we need help, we expect the legislature to help us.

11:49 - And we might see that all come to fruition because,

11:52 - we all know, there's a court case getting ready to come out.

11:55 - We've heard the arguments,

11:58 - of the school games in Pennsylvania and the Supreme Court.

12:02 - If you listen to the arguments,

12:06 - you would think it's going to go one way and they're going to.

12:10 - You would think so.

12:11 - And, we're going to have to deal with that.

12:13 - And if we deal with any kind of revenue, school games, the governor

12:17 - and the administration has said, hey, listen, there's no school games without

12:23 - infrastructure.

12:24 - That's roads, bridge funding and transfer funding or representative bending of.

12:29 - Let's take a step back then and consider the original question,

12:31 - which is about public transit funding and the governor's proposal.

12:35 - And where do you stand on that?

12:37 - I think, obviously transportation is important

12:40 - issue is one of the reasons we're here.

12:41 - Ed and I are kind of an interesting, reflection of the Commonwealth.

12:44 - I represent more of rural area.

12:46 - He represents more of an urban area.

12:48 - I think at times people think the rural districts

12:50 - are not as empathetic to this, but we have some transit systems,

12:52 - not to the degree Pittsburgh and Philadelphia do.

12:55 - I think some of the reservations in a proposal like this is

12:59 - if the economy does dip, if there's problems, hope is correct.

13:03 - We're not changing the sales tax rate, but

13:07 - are you going to be goring someone else's ox?

13:10 - Are you going to be taking money that's currently being spent on, issues?

13:15 - That was from the sales tax.

13:16 - Should there be a drop in the economy?

13:19 - The increase in the sales tax currently looks good, and we'd like to have

13:23 - a stronger economy because overall that's good for everybody involved.

13:26 - But I do think in the rural areas, it's a little harder

13:28 - for some of our members to be as empathetic to this issue

13:31 - because they don't have the transit systems

13:33 - that they're familiar with

13:34 - in urban areas, most of them, if anything, they may have a lottery funded

13:38 - transit service for seniors and some other people with disabilities.

13:42 - So it's a matter of getting the votes

13:44 - and being able to have enough for both chambers.

13:47 - Most people like proposals where you don't have a tax,

13:50 - rate increases versus how it's been spent.

13:53 - Well, let's consider the governor's plan here

13:55 - to increase funding for public transit by taking more money

13:59 - from an existing fund, which would be the sales and use tax.

14:02 - The way I have it, it would amount to about a 1.75%

14:05 - additional funding from the sales and use tax.

14:08 - Now let's put this whole thing into context and consider the governor

14:11 - made a temporary solution for, Septa, the Philadelphia.

14:16 - Transit Agency and the Pittsburgh Regional Transit last year.

14:20 - And so review that and where we stand right now, Representative Nielsen.

14:24 - So so we're about halfway through that mark.

14:27 - And, we met with the transit agency just less than a week ago to talk about that.

14:32 - What does the governor do?

14:33 - He diverted funding that was already there for long term projects.

14:38 - He allowed them for the moment. Yes.

14:39 - He allowed them to flex capital dollars.

14:42 - So the money that was allocated to make capital improvements

14:46 - to buy those new busses, buy

14:47 - those new trains, allowed them to use that money for operational.

14:53 - That still leaves a hole.

14:54 - No matter how you do the math.

14:57 - There's a hole there now. They can't find new busses.

14:59 - They can't upgrade some of their systems.

15:01 - So those are in place.

15:03 - But they're not the only ones.

15:04 - I mean, because we look at South and Northeast PA,

15:08 - there's other transit agencies that are getting ready to fall off

15:11 - the fiscal cliff, and the governor has been patching these things together.

15:15 - And it shouldn't be that shouldn't happen to anybody.

15:20 - So we want to make sure that we have across the Commonwealth

15:24 - a reliable transit system.

15:27 - And that's what this will do.

15:29 - It will allow them to do the capital improvements

15:34 - while at the same time paying their operational costs.

15:37 - So it's going, but they haven't used all the funds.

15:39 - They haven't dipped into all those funds.

15:41 - They haven't used all those capital dollars yet.

15:44 - So there's still hope we don't have anything like that

15:46 - and we can fix that during this budget season.

15:49 - A representative Benning, of how do you see this, temporary solution

15:52 - for public transit?

15:53 - And when does the clock run out on what's in place?

15:56 - Currently?

15:57 - Well, sadly, this is a short term.

15:59 - We go budget to budget with different ideas the prior year to that, as you know,

16:03 - the governor,

16:05 - took some money out of projects,

16:08 - in the rural districts was not necessary transit money,

16:11 - which doesn't necessarily bode well if it's in your area.

16:14 - And so at the end of the day, it boils down to what's benefiting your district.

16:17 - For a lot of our members, not necessarily looking at the bigger picture,

16:20 - I would say the sales tax proposal is probably little more palatable

16:24 - to more of our members versus shutting down projects.

16:27 - We have had projects in some people's districts.

16:30 - Some would argue the majority of them were in Republican districts

16:33 - that they've been waiting 10 or 15 years to get them done.

16:36 - And a lot of rural districts, we have bridges that are weight limited

16:39 - and therefore only certain vehicles can get over them.

16:42 - Some are actually shut down, increasing the mile

16:45 - of transportation for fire companies,

16:48 - milk deliveries and things that really interrupt our commerce as well.

16:52 - And so our members are making sure they're looking out

16:54 - for their own districts and don't want to see another proposal

16:57 - where it's taking money out of, rural district projects.

17:00 - This, I think, probably could get a little better traction, especially now

17:04 - that we've had a year of it being in place and gives us a little bit of history.

17:09 - Now, I just learned

17:10 - recently about something called the Public Transportation Trust Fund.

17:13 - I hadn't heard of that.

17:14 - Canyon let me on that representing Nielsen.

17:17 - What is that and how much money is in there?

17:19 - And is there any proposal to take some of that money out?

17:21 - So the trust fund is where the, a lot of the capital

17:25 - improvement money is a lot of that's allocated for it.

17:28 - And there's the argument in the chambers and across party lines

17:32 - that there's a big pot of money.

17:35 - Well, it's like put money in the bank.

17:38 - You're saving for a rail car that, you know, half $1 billion.

17:43 - So you're not pulling that money.

17:45 - Now, the secretary has said this, and I wish the agencies would spend it

17:50 - more regularly, but it's almost like a bank account

17:53 - for them that they save money. So when that money goes in there,

17:57 - they're not

17:57 - drawing it every day and taking it down to the penny.

18:00 - And that was the argument

18:02 - of where it is, how much is in there, because that fluctuates daily.

18:06 - Because if I'm paying that bill

18:09 - to get ten more busses, I'd pull money out of that to pay it.

18:14 - So there's no need to pull it out

18:16 - and not spend it, because it's one of those that reimburses.

18:20 - It's an account that reimburses your expenditures.

18:23 - So if you're spending $1 million, you're writing to them,

18:27 - you're putting on all the paperwork and they're giving you a million back.

18:30 - So that's the number.

18:31 - I don't know the exact balance of that currently.

18:35 - But that's how that works.

18:37 - It's an in and out, in and out, in and out.

18:39 - And it's they tell us it's allocated all the money's allocate.

18:44 - But one thing I'd add to that,

18:45 - and I agree with Secretary Carroll, if it was spent on a more routine

18:49 - basis, you probably would have less impact of the fluctuating costs.

18:53 - One of the things that we see

18:54 - predominantly, whether it's roads and bridges

18:56 - or mass transit, is our costs keep going up.

18:58 - The costs never seem to go down.

19:00 - Whether it's labor costs, material costs.

19:02 - And I think if people were to be replacing these projects on a more regular basis,

19:06 - they won't have that impact of waiting ten, 15 years

19:09 - and then having to as absorbent labor and materials cost increases.

19:14 - Well, let's try to get some closure.

19:15 - On the subject of public transportation, is this something we're going to hear

19:19 - about in the legislature before the budget is due at the end of next month?

19:23 - What do you think, Representative Nielsen?

19:25 - So we have not ended the fight on funding transit.

19:28 - We passed five pieces of legislation over to the Senate.

19:32 - They have, taken up only one, and it was not agreed

19:36 - upon on concurrence when it came back to the House.

19:40 - I'm optimistic because everybody's agreed

19:43 - that there is a problem here

19:45 - and not only with the transit but the infrastructure, because, I mean,

19:48 - to fix our roads and bridges.

19:49 - This is what hits everybody.

19:51 - You're going over that pothole.

19:53 - PennDOT, if you look at their numbers, they're 9 billion short now.

19:57 - We can't make that up overnight.

20:00 - So this we need a funding package that will not only do that.

20:05 - And that's not the only modes of transportation that need help.

20:08 - I mean, look at the airports, look at the ports.

20:11 - It trains everything.

20:14 - That's all transportation.

20:16 - So when we look at stuff in a committee as a whole,

20:19 - both Democrat, Republican, we understand because this is not a Partizan committee.

20:23 - We're actually trying to do the right by every Pennsylvania,

20:26 - chairman Daniel Hall, for myself, have a great relationship.

20:30 - Even when we're not in session, we're still talking to try

20:33 - and fix these issues, because it's something that

20:36 - Pennsylvania cares about representing, banning half what kind of debate

20:39 - you expect on public transportation again before the budget is due?

20:43 - Well, quickly, I'd love to see it happen because we're we're spending a lot,

20:48 - a lot of time talking about it.

20:49 - But I think we'd be foolish to think this thing's

20:51 - just going to go away because it's an ongoing issue.

20:54 - Transportation needs are always going to be there.

20:57 - In other words, might you vote on this increase from the sales and, use tax?

21:01 - Yeah.

21:01 - I think what we will see is this come forth and

21:05 - but I would caution the listeners that this is not the be all and end all,

21:09 - because we saw that with act 89, people thought that was going to

21:13 - be funding for 9 or 10, 15 years.

21:16 - And, and driving habits changed and people started working from home.

21:19 - We got more fuel efficient cars.

21:21 - And frankly,

21:21 - we have,

21:22 - you know, bringing less money in through those resources than we had in the past.

21:26 - And yet the grant, the man continued to increase.

21:29 - Last thing I'd say, if you think about rural

21:31 - roads, is up until the night we had no money for expanded capacity.

21:35 - We were just patching, painting, fixing bridges and roads and never being.

21:39 - We'll put that third lane and turning lane, those types of things.

21:42 - So this isn't a thing that's going to continue to evolve.

21:44 - This could be a temporary fix for another couple of years.

21:48 - I don't see it to be the be all and end all.

21:50 - And we don't know how transportation is going to continue to change, too.

21:53 - I mean, we've been having committee meetings on autonomous vehicles.

21:57 - We're going to be seeing

21:58 - more utilization of drones delivering packages and type things.

22:03 - This is kind of an exciting time,

22:05 - but it's not something where I could give you a clear cut answer. Yes.

22:08 - This will fix it for the next ten years. Don't worry about it.

22:11 - I think it gets us over the hump and hopefully we can get on to discussing

22:15 - other good issues.

22:16 - Well, let's talk about some of the bills that are in the Transportation Committee

22:20 - or have been approved by the Transportation Committee,

22:23 - and it has to do with driving.

22:24 - And we all know what it's like to drive through a work zone, and we know that

22:27 - there's certain hazards there.

22:29 - And certainly accidents have been reported in work zones and meals.

22:32 - And I understand there is a bill

22:34 - that has to do with safe driving practices, in work zones.

22:38 - Can you tell us about it?

22:39 - We are trying to protect the workers.

22:42 - We have done taken steps during our tenure

22:46 - as chairs of transportation to actually make it safer.

22:51 - Not everybody likes it with the speed cameras in this in that.

22:54 - But we're trying to make it safer for the workforce as well as the drivers.

22:59 - Because that's where we see people killed on the side of the road. So.

23:03 - So we want to make sure that we do that.

23:05 - At the same time, we also changed our focus

23:09 - a little bit this session on doing other different things.

23:12 - So we have safety protecting people.

23:14 - We saw with the cell phone bands and all of that coming into full effect.

23:18 - So everybody better put their cell phones if they're watching us right now

23:21 - live in a car, they better stop because we're there. So

23:27 - we concentrate on safety, and now we're concentrating

23:29 - on updating our system by doing digital stuff.

23:32 - You know, like our digital driver's license.

23:34 - We just to prove that in the committee, digital owners cards, insurance quotes,

23:39 - we want to make sure that there's convenience there as well.

23:42 - So we're focusing in on the people and safety is number one.

23:48 - Well back to the work zone bill. Just for a moment.

23:50 - What are you proposing there.

23:51 - What would the bill do to make work zones safer.

23:55 - But we're going to we're going to double the fines.

23:57 - You're going to

23:57 - we've all see those signs and we're out that speed cameras within work zones.

24:02 - Currently we have speed cameras in the work zones on the turnpike.

24:06 - That's where you only see them.

24:07 - You don't see them anywhere else.

24:09 - Well, hopefully they're going to come to a road near you

24:12 - if you'd like to expand that to interstates.

24:14 - It sounds definitely like to expand it.

24:16 - Because workers are getting hurt all over.

24:20 - It just doesn't happen on the turnpike.

24:22 - And in the past we've used policing there, but it's almost not a really great

24:26 - use of their resources.

24:27 - They have a state trooper car sitting there. And,

24:30 - and I both get calls people, why would you have a state trooper car there?

24:33 - I remember if people were complaining about the just the different signs

24:37 - we put up, your mother works here or somebody's father works there, right.

24:40 - And I have people call me. That's a silly sign.

24:42 - Why would you do that?

24:43 - Well, we're trying to make the issue real.

24:46 - We're trying to put a face on with the cameras.

24:48 - When there's the workers there, sometimes it's absolutely fine.

24:51 - Say they want to go home at the end of the day. Exactly.

24:53 - And that they have families.

24:54 - And sadly, when I was county coroner, I remember sitting in or outside

24:58 - of a work zone and with a trooper and we were doing Baskar

25:02 - and radar and time and easy average car going through into these

25:06 - tunnels was 72 miles an hour into a work zone.

25:10 - The average was people don't realize.

25:13 - And so with the cameras, one thing I have heard from

25:15 - people is, wow, that was my car. I saw my license plate.

25:17 - I guess it was me again, as you said, it puts a face on the issue.

25:21 - We're not trying to be punitive.

25:22 - We're not just trying to find money, we're trying to punctuate

25:26 - the fact that we all have a responsibility to slow down.

25:29 - I get people call me criticizing why we have cones and things set up so far

25:33 - before they get into a work zone,

25:35 - but people don't realize that they're in the car,

25:36 - they're playing the radio, putting CDs or whatever it is that they're doing.

25:39 - They're so preoccupied that they forget they're still down 65 miles an hour

25:43 - going into what should be a 35 mile an hour zone.

25:46 - It's just about trying to be smart, safe, because at the end of the day,

25:49 - guess what?

25:49 - That also impacts all of our insurance costs as well as people's lives.

25:53 - And as the chairman said, it's not there to make money.

25:56 - Okay.

25:57 - The whole idea of the program is to lose money,

25:59 - because when these programs are losing money, that means we're saving lives.

26:04 - So that's the important part.

26:06 - There's no big money grab because even when you go through all the dollars

26:09 - and cents, by the time we get, you're talking like 4 or $5, $10 a ticket,

26:14 - you're paying $100 or a ticket.

26:16 - We're getting $10 by the time all the costs come out of it, that's no money.

26:19 - Grab.

26:20 - Let's go back to what you brought up and ready to go, Representative Nielsen,

26:24 - about the digital documents for drivers,

26:26 - a digital driver's license, a digital digital car registration.

26:29 - I'm sure some of our viewers are learning about that for the first time.

26:33 - And they're wondering, would these digital documents

26:35 - be in addition to the conventional traditional paper documents?

26:38 - You will still need a traditional driver's license, okay.

26:42 - Because when you get pulled over, if you get pulled over,

26:46 - you will have to show that to the officer

26:49 - because the officer doesn't

26:52 - need to take the liability of taking your phone,

26:55 - looking at your phone, dropping your phone, breaking a phone.

26:57 - So we made sure we made provisions within the legislation

27:00 - to protect the liability ends because your phones now are $1,000.

27:05 - I mean, you get so that if you drive, oh, you've broke my phone.

27:10 - You can take that and have somebody this way.

27:12 - You have to have that document. But this does a whole lot.

27:14 - This digital piece can do a whole lot of things.

27:16 - So this digital, it doesn't help police officers.

27:18 - Then where is it most useful?

27:20 - The digital version.

27:21 - It's the same.

27:22 - It's going to be useful whether you have to show your ID to purchase alcohol,

27:27 - whether you need these are also the way we designed it

27:31 - is that it's TSA compliant.

27:33 - You can use it at airports if you have a real ID on it.

27:36 - And that's a choice they don't all have.

27:38 - There was someone else said, well, you have to have real ID,

27:41 - you get digital police, you do not.

27:42 - It's set up just like a driver's license.

27:45 - But when you show that ID,

27:47 - that digital piece, you don't have to show all your information on it, is there?

27:50 - We made sure through negotiation, to make sure that you only have to show

27:55 - what they're asking for.

27:56 - And there's so much that you have to show ID for.

28:00 - This is the beginning of the future.

28:02 - Well, then let's consider the version.

28:05 - That has to do with the digital registration of the vehicle then.

28:08 - Now, the only time I'm called on

28:09 - to produce my vehicle registration is when I'm about to have the car inspected.

28:14 - But you said you know, it's not good to have somebody else handle your phone.

28:17 - Had that liability of possibly breaking it.

28:19 - So I'm trying to find out the usefulness of a digital registration

28:22 - then. Was it did you have if you're going to show me your card anyway.

28:25 - Okay.

28:26 - So digital registration is kind of like your digital, piece

28:30 - on your insurance card.

28:33 - Okay. You can give that to your vendor.

28:36 - You can text that picture to them.

28:38 - Because I see you can actually text that to if you look at your

28:42 - if you get your car insurance card now you can text that to them.

28:46 - This way they can see it then drop off your car and then in advance

28:51 - of the registration, your registration was in the glove compartment.

28:54 - What are you going to do?

28:55 - Let me just text that over to you, because I have a digitally

28:57 - in my own wallet right here.

28:59 - I can show you the updated card right here.

29:01 - Yeah, we've all heard that at least one time, that the card

29:05 - is just not in my glove compartment.

29:07 - Well, one thing I might add to, if I may, is I live in a college town,

29:10 - and so a lot of college

29:11 - students are carrying purses with them or don't want to be carrying purses.

29:14 - If you go to sporting events

29:15 - now, unless you have a clear bag, you can't take any kind of bag with you.

29:19 - But the one thing people do have with them their phone.

29:22 - So whether you're presenting identification,

29:24 - preventing your car registration,

29:26 - if I you talked about this other bill that we did the online verification

29:30 - for people's insurance, you can now send

29:33 - that electronically to your insurance company, to the police department.

29:37 - Whoever has an inquiry about whether you have insurance.

29:40 - And we'll talk about this. Yeah.

29:41 - Your bill that has to do with insurance. We're going to talk about that soon.

29:44 - Well, let's take a break, gentlemen, just for a minute, because I'm going to,

29:47 - take a look at program notes for here on PCN.

29:52 - The Capital Blue Cross Forum welcomes Representative Jordan

29:55 - Harris, majority appropriations chair.

29:57 - He'll be on today at 12 p.m.

30:00 - on the issues will be about protections for adult entertainers.

30:04 - Allison Boden, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition,

30:08 - explains on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

30:12 - on Journalists Roundtable this week, the guest will be Sam Jeanette

30:16 - from the Philadelphia Esquire and Charles McElwee from Real Clear, Pennsylvania.

30:22 - Well, join us Thursday at 7 p.m..

30:25 - On the history and culture side, Programing America

30:27 - 250 celebrates the Pottsville Maroons of 1925.

30:33 - They were a professional football team that played in the NFL.

30:37 - That's on today at 8 p.m..

30:39 - Its history tells the story of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

30:44 - Thousands of indigenous students were forced to renounce their way of life.

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31:17 - Okay, gentlemen, thanks for for giving me that interruption.

31:20 - Representative Benning off.

31:21 - I'm gonna give the floor back to you

31:23 - because you brought up a certain bill that has to do with, insurance.

31:28 - I understand if a driver cancels their car policy within six months

31:31 - of the original issue date, the vehicle registration may be suspended.

31:35 - Is that what you're talking about? Yes.

31:37 - We I don't know if there's a legislators office who does not get this phone call

31:41 - at least once or twice a week. They get pulled over.

31:44 - They're told they don't have car insurance and they have no, they have,

31:48 - several days to produce.

31:49 - And whether they have that or not or receive a fine of $500,

31:53 - what happens is we mandated that the insurance companies

31:56 - notify PennDOT if you drop your insurance,

31:59 - but they aren't necessarily mandated to notify PennDOT when you pick up

32:03 - new insurance, especially if you go somewhere else to do that in the past.

32:08 - Obviously, we want everyone to be insured, and this is kind of a way to insure

32:13 - that people, we're not driving without car insurance

32:17 - to protect themselves and those around them.

32:19 - Unfortunately, it became very, very complicated.

32:21 - I had one particular family, they had three cars

32:25 - and all of them fell under this scenario.

32:28 - So now what we've done with Ed's help is chairman getting this bill through

32:32 - and getting through the Senate is it will be an online verification program.

32:36 - When we first started this dialog, you know, there's other entities involved.

32:39 - Insurance industry as well.

32:42 - And they thought it'd be 3 or 4 years.

32:44 - We were able to argue and pare that down because we don't think anything

32:48 - should be implemented that slowly.

32:49 - But at the end of the day,

32:50 - a police officer and other insurer can now go online and verify,

32:54 - oh, I'm sorry, you do have insurance with the new plate readers.

32:58 - Police officers can pull you over and know before they come up to the car

33:02 - that you're showing it, you know, and I'm surance they can just read it off

33:06 - from your license plate.

33:07 - We're trying to make this more consumer friendly and make it so that,

33:13 - there are not these mix ups

33:15 - because often times people will go for a while

33:17 - and until they are pulled over,

33:19 - don't realize they're being labeled as not having car insurance.

33:22 - We always want Edward insured.

33:24 - We want them to be safe.

33:26 - But this new online

33:27 - kind of couples,

33:28 - what we were talking about before, is taking advantage of today's technology,

33:31 - that officers will have access to information,

33:33 - you'll have access to information.

33:35 - And then sure,

33:35 - it sounds like another matter of the law having to catch up with technology.

33:38 - Absolutely.

33:39 - Because people were getting tripped up and then they couldn't drive.

33:42 - And if they drove again trying to get to work the following day,

33:46 - because they had to go to work and had not found the verification,

33:50 - they get another ticket. And so we're trying to a tag.

33:53 - So so when the police read that tag, they say, well, you're under suspension

33:56 - and it's become a park. You're right. They're on a road.

33:59 - It's an issue. It's an issue.

34:02 - So hopefully this issue is there, as PennDOT continues to upgrade

34:07 - their computer system when we go through little struggles and bumps and stuff.

34:10 - But, they're all moving into good technology

34:13 - and that's what we're trying to do, right?

34:14 - Well, let's turn our attention to another, issue that certainly vehicle owners

34:18 - are dealing with all the time, and that has to do with vehicle registration.

34:21 - So let's review.

34:22 - If you go and register your vehicle now, like your car, it's $48.

34:26 - In two years, it's double that $96.

34:29 - Representing Nelson, you have some kind of a discount in mind, don't you?

34:33 - I do, because if this is money, we can invest.

34:36 - And that's how I was looking at it.

34:39 - Because if we're taking that money,

34:41 - we should be able to invest that money because it's a two year registration.

34:45 - And if we want to stretch it out, if we want some people

34:47 - talk about even making it longer because we're not just keeping our,

34:51 - you know, we get that car payment. It's five, six years now.

34:53 - It's not that three year payment that it was when my first car.

34:56 - Now it's six years and I still can't afford it.

34:59 - So we want to make sure it's affordable.

35:01 - But at the same time we want to make an incentive incentive

35:04 - for people to do that because that allows us to invest that money.

35:09 - And make some money off it.

35:12 - I mean, that's reality.

35:13 - You put money in a bank, you let it sit for two years, it makes money.

35:16 - So, we want we want to get that discount and pass that on to consumers,

35:20 - especially in today's world.

35:21 - How big a discount you have in mind represented Nelson?

35:23 - Well, we you know, I would like to see if it's currently double.

35:27 - What would you like to cut it?

35:27 - I would like to do a 10% discount for those people.

35:30 - The same kind of for two year registration.

35:33 - You registration.

35:34 - Because

35:37 - if a million people do that, that's a lot of money.

35:40 - So we can make 10%.

35:41 - We can do that. We can do with the right investments.

35:43 - We have some good,

35:45 - accountants in the state of Pennsylvania that could make sure that happens.

35:49 - So we want to make sure we pass that on to the consumer.

35:52 - Of course we want to make it more convenient

35:54 - because, again, people forget we used to have that registration

35:59 - sticker on the back of our car that we used to put on there.

36:03 - I remember, so

36:04 - without that sticker and all people forget to register their car as they really do.

36:08 - So and law enforcement with that, if they don't have them readers in there,

36:13 - they don't even know,

36:14 - because you used to be able to identify that little blue sticker in the corner.

36:18 - So it's things like that that we're trying to bring up to technology

36:21 - and hopefully bending off. How does that sound to you?

36:24 - 10% discount on two year vehicle registration.

36:27 - As a true Republican, I'm always looking for a discount.

36:30 - But you know what the I think it has an interesting idea.

36:33 - You're paying ahead.

36:34 - And so any of the additional money that you'd be paying for technology,

36:37 - a service you're not getting, why not reinvest that,

36:40 - and try to raise some money?

36:42 - I think one thing that people need to realize in state of Pennsylvania,

36:45 - most of our funding for hot highways and bridges, pardon me,

36:50 - is through the gas tax and fees and fines and those types of things,

36:54 - but it's all dedicated.

36:55 - A lot of states use this to balanced budgets, do other popular programs, but

37:00 - we predominantly have all of ours on roads and bridges, whether you like it or not.

37:04 - At least the users are paying for the wear and tear

37:08 - and they're getting something back in return.

37:10 - Maybe not as fast as they like, but I think it's important to highlight

37:14 - the Pennsylvania's

37:14 - a little bit different that considering how much roadway we have to take care of.

37:18 - I represent betting half keep the floor for a moment,

37:20 - because we're going to consider a bill that you're working on.

37:23 - It has to do with truck parking, meaning these long haul

37:26 - truck drivers, they have to stop and, park their rigs.

37:30 - And why was this something you wanted to get involved in?

37:33 - Well, Pennsylvania happens to be a thoroughfare for an awful lot of traffic

37:37 - from the southern part of the state up through and into the New England states.

37:42 - Pennsylvania gets a tremendous amount of truck traffic, rather than PennDOT

37:45 - having to put expansions or pull us along the road.

37:49 - We are trying to incentivize businesses for some type of tax credit to say,

37:52 - if you're going to welcome big, places within your own large parking lots,

37:57 - which predominantly in night time aren't utilized

37:59 - as much as they are during the daytime, it's a win win.

38:01 - The truckers have a safe place to pull off, if the business happens to be open

38:06 - fast 8 or 9 or dark, they get a client, they may come in and purchase some things,

38:11 - but it saves us money as a commonwealth to provide off the road

38:15 - safe parking rather than having people pull over on a berm

38:19 - and parking of these large rigs.

38:21 - We just thought it was an interesting way to try to provide

38:24 - safety and convenience for our truck drivers.

38:27 - And the goal ultimately is to not have them traveling longer than they should be.

38:32 - As you know, they have limited hours. What are the rules?

38:34 - Can you tell us basically, for how often

38:36 - someone driving a big rig has to pull over and take a break?

38:39 - It's about how many hours they're going.

38:42 - I can't remember exactly.

38:43 - Yeah, they can only drive a certain amount of hours during the day.

38:46 - And if I recall correctly, how long the break is in between.

38:50 - They have to have that break and parking.

38:52 - No matter where you are, you have to stop that rig.

38:56 - And even when it

38:57 - comes down to cities like mine, like Philadelphia,

39:00 - we see these rigs parking coming off the major highways and parking and shopping

39:05 - malls, parking lots and stuff like that, just to get some sleep overnight because,

39:10 - because they can't get their rigs into hotel parking lots and stuff like that.

39:14 - So we see all kinds of issues of parking and this helps alleviate that.

39:20 - And that was the great thing.

39:21 - That's why it's a bipartisan effort to get this done.

39:24 - If it's parked along a roadway, especially if they're not far

39:27 - behind the fog line, some there's not enough room.

39:30 - Another tire motors in a car can come along and hit that.

39:33 - So the goal is to actually get them off

39:35 - the major highway, get them off, get somewhere that's safer, smarter,

39:39 - and, is not an impediment to the current.

39:42 - And these trucks are big.

39:43 - They require a lot of space. Yes. Yeah.

39:45 - We like to say we want to have a shift in between.

39:47 - If they're driving for a long time, they've got to have at least, I think a

39:49 - 6 to 8 hours downtime that they have to be sleeping or resting.

39:53 - And I think that's smart.

39:54 - So let's make it convenient.

39:56 - Represent Nielsen.

39:57 - Let's look at a bill you're working on.

39:58 - Has to do with off road vehicles.

40:00 - And I think all of us have noticed that there are more off road vehicles

40:04 - that are obviously illegal, that are on the streets,

40:06 - and your bill addresses the penalties for using off road vehicles on city streets.

40:11 - Tell me about that.

40:11 - So so what we did is, about six years ago we changed the law.

40:16 - And unfortunately, some of the local ordinances became unlawful.

40:21 - Take the city of Philadelphia.

40:23 - They were able to do certain things with these off road vehicles,

40:27 - because there is a whole use across the Commonwealth, like

40:32 - if you're in Potter County, a

40:33 - lot of people use these, but they use them differently when you're in the city.

40:37 - Harrisburg, when you're city Philadelphia, I mean, you can be walking down.

40:40 - Second Street and downtown Harrisburg, sitting on the,

40:45 - at a restaurant having dinner or having lunch.

40:49 - And here they are revving up right next to you.

40:51 - Right. So they're getting to be annoying.

40:54 - And the safety of the people are driving them, aren't licensed.

41:00 - It's it's a mess. It gets to be a mess.

41:01 - And now they're running around in packs through the city, and then it expands

41:06 - into the counties, surrounding the cities because the cities are cracking down.

41:10 - So it's something that everybody wants to be part of.

41:13 - They want to be able to create a local law that works for them, and that's it.

41:18 - This legislation will do if a, local town or a city council wants to pass

41:24 - an ordinance, they can, as long as it's stronger than the state law.

41:28 - And that's what we that's what this legislation will do.

41:30 - Well,

41:31 - how difficult is it for law enforcement to go after these packs, as you call them?

41:34 - So let's talk about going after, because even we don't see the car chases

41:39 - and stuff like that anymore because it puts more people in danger.

41:43 - It really does. So,

41:46 - but we want

41:46 - to make sure our law enforcement have every tool available.

41:50 - And to the box, whether it is boxing a street off on both ends

41:55 - and capping them in and seizing these vehicles

41:59 - and getting them off the street, being able to, hey, Joey's driving it.

42:04 - We know where Joey live. Joey's over here.

42:07 - You can go over and grab that.

42:08 - You can no longer do that no more because stuff like that.

42:11 - So if you have that fear because there are places and maybe that's our job,

42:16 - our job is going to be to make sure we find places for these individuals

42:20 - to ride them.

42:20 - I mean, they need safe off road places to ride them.

42:26 - And, you know, we have laws, they have to wear helmets.

42:29 - And we've seen them run around without anything.

42:31 - And to put those kids in danger.

42:33 - Now, of course, of course, with everything it's parenting comes to.

42:36 - Okay.

42:37 - Because, I mean, I have five boys and, and my, my youngest

42:41 - is 20, but all through growing up, I'm telling you, they wanted them.

42:44 - I never got, you know, maybe I was the bad dad.

42:47 - I didn't get that for them.

42:48 - But it was because there was nowhere safe to ride it and that that was the problem.

42:54 - Yeah, we can ride it through the woods real fast.

42:56 - Said stay in the woods if you have the woods nearby.

42:58 - If we had them nearby and if they weren't park,

43:01 - if they didn't have trails for people

43:03 - to walk their dogs and stuff like that and ride their bikes that close,

43:06 - I mean, there's certain places that they should use.

43:08 - We had to go over to the state in new Jersey, in the Pinelands to ride anything.

43:12 - So I didn't have a vehicle to put any of these vehicles in behind it.

43:15 - So it gets to be problematic. All the way through where.

43:19 - Chairman Banning off.

43:20 - He has the pickup truck.

43:22 - He piled support for motorcycles in the back of his vehicle and take my kids.

43:27 - I mean I wouldn't be surprised if he did because he has 11 grandchildren.

43:30 - Unsurprised.

43:31 - They don't all pack in, but, that's his it's something it's a different area.

43:35 - They they use them differently.

43:37 - I think there's an irony, the fact that we're talking about off road vehicles

43:40 - or whether they should or shouldn't be on the road,

43:42 - they're not supposed to be on the road.

43:43 - But at the end of the day,

43:44 - the ones that are having trouble here in Harrisburg and Philly,

43:47 - these are deliberate acts of being a nuisance.

43:51 - And I don't think, citizens walking across the road or at a restaurant

43:55 - should be hindered by them.

43:56 - Years ago, through DC.

43:59 - And are we actually required plates for people using them off the road? Why?

44:03 - Because it's so difficult.

44:04 - Your earlier question to be able to police it.

44:07 - A ATV or three Wheeler, which I don't make too many of anymore

44:11 - down in the streets of a city, are always going to get away

44:13 - from a police officer at the car, is not going to get in the areas that are,

44:16 - but sadly it becomes a game of chase and that is jeopardizing the pedestrians.

44:21 - Arendelle.

44:21 - So there's a lot of reasons this bill specifically actually kind of reverses

44:25 - another act.

44:26 - And allows the locals to come up with an ordinance.

44:28 - In some cases, they were impounding them.

44:30 - They say, okay, people, because then I can pay the fine

44:34 - and they go get another one.

44:35 - But it didn't get the deterrence that they needed.

44:38 - So we're going to have the state law and then allow the locals to do some

44:42 - of their own policing.

44:43 - For those of us who, you know, we support local control,

44:47 - Representative Benning off, let's talk about another bill that you're working

44:50 - on. Now.

44:50 - Most of us know about DUI driving under the influence of alcohol,

44:54 - but there's an offense known as be UI.

44:57 - And the B stands for boating. Correct.

45:00 - Tell me about that.

45:01 - And what your what kind of changes you're proposing.

45:04 - Well, some would say you're putting a wet rag on the party.

45:07 - But at the end of the day we're trying to and by request of the Fish.

45:10 - Commission, have consistency with our laws, whether it's by

45:13 - boating under the influence or driving under the influence.

45:17 - And if you were to hurt somebody or kill somebody,

45:19 - we want the requirement to be consistent.

45:22 - I sadly had a case back home and where an individual

45:25 - who had already had, I believe, three prior DUIs have a boy with alcohol

45:31 - and unfortunately killed a ten year old young lady

45:35 - in our community when he went to court.

45:38 - It was not allowed to be brought up.

45:40 - The fact they had these priors because their priors under a different vehicle

45:44 - and in return, his sentencing only reflected the current problem

45:48 - of being under the influence by boat that one time.

45:51 - So he was convicted and sentenced as a one time

45:55 - offender versus his four different violations.

45:59 - Is the limit on blood alcohol content the same for B and DUI?

46:05 - Yeah.

46:05 - Under the influence is under influence oh 8% crime to remember

46:09 - right and frankly I don't want to be imposing on people.

46:14 - But people need to understand you get licensed to use a boat.

46:17 - You get a license to fly a plane, you get licensed to drive a car.

46:20 - There comes a responsibility. We all taught our children.

46:23 - You know, this is not just a gift.

46:25 - You have a responsibility by driving a vehicle.

46:28 - It doesn't matter what the vehicles.

46:29 - And frankly, it's sad for me if someone gets injured, whether it's

46:33 - by a boat, a car or motorcycle or a regular bicycle, that injury is no less.

46:38 - And the losses that we have seen people getting killed in these situations

46:41 - is no less for the family.

46:43 - Oh, we're asking people to be is responsible.

46:44 - And if you're not going to be responsible, that's the whole premise of laws

46:48 - is if you break the law, there's a price to pay for that.

46:50 - And in return, you could lose your vehicle, you may get

46:54 - sentenced to jail, whatever else, we want it to be consistent.

46:57 - So the message is

46:58 - we don't have people under the influence, regardless of the vehicle.

47:01 - The vehicle should not dictate the punishment.

47:04 - Now, a couple minutes ago,

47:05 - we talked about law enforcement going after illegal off road vehicles.

47:09 - So let's apply the same question to, boating.

47:12 - And how big of a presence does law enforcement have on our waterways

47:17 - to check for this offense?

47:18 - So I live on the Delaware River.

47:20 - Within 15 minutes, you can put a boat in the river.

47:25 - My son has a boat.

47:27 - He takes his granddaughter out to all the time.

47:29 - And you always see the doors in between Pennsylvania, new Jersey,

47:34 - and there's not a time that I've been out on his boat or my own

47:38 - little, fishing boat that I have not seen an enforcement officer out on the water.

47:44 - There are the Fish Commission has

47:46 - people out there.

47:47 - The state police have people out there, the Philadelphia police

47:50 - and the new Jersey state.

47:51 - These are easily identified on the water, easily identify the boats marked.

47:55 - Yes, they are marked and they have lights on it,

47:56 - just like your police car and your law enforcement cars

48:00 - right in your own driveway.

48:01 - They are marked and they do their job and they're there to protect them.

48:05 - They're there.

48:06 - Protect my granddaughter who's might be tubing down the back of that boat.

48:10 - I think they do a great job.

48:11 - But that's I see that because we have two busy boat ramps,

48:15 - one in Bucks County and one in Northeast Philadelphia,

48:19 - and they're real close to each other.

48:20 - And we see the hundreds and hundreds of boats go out and enjoy the water.

48:24 - The bigger the body, the more difficult of waterways to police.

48:27 - And you only have so many officers.

48:29 - The efficient boat division don't have that many officers.

48:32 - But one thing I'd caution our listeners too, is

48:35 - as the pilot of the boat or captain or whatever you want to call

48:38 - yourself, you have responsibility, really, not to be drinking.

48:42 - It's that simple.

48:43 - Be responsible.

48:44 - Have a designated driver regardless what the vehicle is.

48:47 - It's not that hard.

48:48 - Gentlemen, we have about two minutes left in this segment.

48:50 - Let's put transportation aside and just consider,

48:53 - the budget proposal, that we brought up at the very beginning of our show.

48:57 - And how do you expect that to play out?

48:59 - And what else to expect and debate before the budget is due at the end of June?

49:04 - Try to take just a minute, Representative Nielsen.

49:06 - So so I think that it was a fair proposal.

49:09 - We saw costs go up and investments have to keep going where we are.

49:15 - The governor's, put something forth that takes

49:19 - care of a lot of Pennsylvanians, where they'll be a battle.

49:24 - Yes. There's going to be a battle

49:25 - because he sends a few billion more than he did last year.

49:28 - But we have the rainy day fund,

49:31 - and that was we can't tap into the rainy day fund.

49:33 - Well, well, when Governor Shapiro took office, there was no rainy day fund.

49:37 - Okay?

49:38 - That rainy day fund was so little, it meant nothing to anybody.

49:42 - But now there's a lot of money in it.

49:43 - My understanding is $8 billion, 8 billion, 8 billion, untapped.

49:49 - And there's everybody's belts at home are tightening up.

49:53 - And we have to tighten up here, too.

49:55 - But we can't allow our children and all to suffer.

49:58 - So we want to just hopefully we'll get it done in June.

50:01 - Representative Benning of how do you see the next four weeks or so?

50:04 - Respectfully, I believe that there's probably

50:06 - going to be some adjustments to it.

50:08 - I don't think we all want to spend billions more each year.

50:11 - I realize there's increased costs.

50:13 - I do believe a budget will probably be done by July,

50:16 - by the end of June, July 1st to somewhere along there.

50:19 - There's a lot going on this year.

50:21 - It frankly, if I had my way, we take November's Budget

50:23 - and just extend that and add a little bit of cost living.

50:26 - But I think there will be probably a little more cooperation. Get it done.

50:28 - Our guests, our guests have been the chairs of the House Transportation.

50:33 - Committee, for the minority representative, Carrie Benning, half.

50:36 - Okay.

50:37 - And for the majority, Representative Ed Nielsen.

50:39 - Thank you both for joining us. Thanks, Larry, for having us.

50:42 - Thank you very much.

50:43 - Perkins.

50:43 - Ellen Frantz talked to Representative Nikki Rivera about cyber

50:47 - charter school funding.

50:50 - Welcome to our program.

50:52 - You've proposed legislation involving cyber charter schools.

50:55 - What does your bill say?

50:58 - So House Bill 2358.

51:01 - The goal of House Bill 2358 is to have taxpayers

51:06 - not have to pay for duplicate school services.

51:10 - Right now, we are paying a lot of money per school district in duplicate services.

51:15 - The other goal is to allow for students to experience quality cyber

51:21 - programing in their own school district, if it already exists.

51:25 - It's much less expensive to attend

51:27 - an in district cyber program than to have that school district

51:31 - pay out of district tuition to a different cyber program.

51:36 - And the other goal of House Bill 2358 is to rightsize

51:40 - a school district's budget regarding paying for outside services

51:45 - when those services are already offered and provided by the school.

51:50 - The district in tax money

51:52 - is already covering students who are residents of that district.

51:55 - So keeping that tax money in the school district is a better use of the money

51:59 - than paying duplicate and high priced tuition outside of the district.

52:04 - Can you walk us through how cyber charter schools are currently funded

52:07 - in Pennsylvania?

52:10 - Yes. So a family who

52:12 - wants their child to learn, virtually on screen

52:17 - would let the school district know that, and then the school district

52:21 - would be required to pay the tuition to the cyber charter program

52:26 - that that family wants their student to attend, regardless of

52:30 - if that district already has a program.

52:32 - It would be like saying, my school district has an art class.

52:36 - Your school district has an art class.

52:38 - I don't want to take my art class.

52:39 - I want to go to yours,

52:40 - and my school is going to pay for me to travel there and take that class.

52:43 - It doesn't make sense.

52:45 - The funding structure of cyber don't make sense.

52:47 - Doesn't make sense.

52:49 - What I would like to see is that we rightsize services

52:53 - that are cyber oriented, just like we do for sending students to who get high.

52:58 - I u13 here Lancaster.

53:00 - I use services for special education or like we send students

53:04 - to our CTC programs for trades in high school.

53:08 - And we contract with those schools because we don't provide

53:11 - those services ourselves.

53:12 - If there's a service we already provide, like quality cyber programing,

53:17 - then the student should attend ours and we shouldn't have to pay extra

53:21 - for them to go to another one.

53:22 - I do not want to see cyber programs shut down.

53:25 - There are great quality programs out there,

53:27 - and there are school districts that don't have quality programs.

53:31 - So by all means, those school districts should be contracting

53:34 - with a cyber program.

53:35 - But for districts such as Conestoga Valley,

53:38 - which is in my House district, a little portion of it is they have spent

53:42 - lots of time and money on building their cyber program,

53:45 - and should not be required to pay tuition to a different program.

53:49 - So I want to help school districts all over the state to keep district money

53:53 - in district to support their programs, rather than overspending

53:57 - on unnecessary additional cyber tuition.

54:01 - What feedback have you heard

54:02 - regarding this bill from parents and teachers of these cyber schools,

54:07 - of the cyber schools?

54:08 - What I see in in emails that I've gotten, from some parents

54:13 - is that these kinds of programs have helped their child to belong and to

54:18 - find community, because in their school, they couldn't find it.

54:22 - And their school doesn't offer a similar program.

54:25 - That's the kind of student, I hope will continue to experience cyber

54:30 - education in school districts, that have contacted me as school

54:35 - district administration, that has contacted

54:36 - me, that have said thank you for this legislation.

54:39 - For years, we've been spending an extra couple hundred thousand dollars

54:42 - or millions of dollars paying tuition for a service we already provide.

54:47 - That shouldn't be happening.

54:49 - So again, right sizing our district budgets

54:51 - and spending our taxpayer money once on students

54:55 - instead of twice on cyber education when it already exists in district

55:00 - where it where is this bill in the legislative process currently?

55:04 - It has been circulated.

55:07 - I suppose it will be in the education committee, but I have not gotten word on

55:11 - whether it will hit committee yet or not.

55:14 - I have recently talked with, actually, last night

55:17 - I met with a group of CTC

55:20 - district leaders, program leaders from around the state.

55:24 - And interestingly, one of the people that I spoke with said

55:28 - to me, boy, I wish we could do something about cyber tuition payment

55:31 - because our CTC student students who want to go into the trades

55:35 - are on waiting lists, and districts need to be contributing more toward

55:40 - expanding and providing extra programs for CTC.

55:44 - The return on the investment of a student that does a CTC program is most likely,

55:49 - a bigger return on the investment than someone who attends a cyber

55:53 - charter school when their school already has cyber programs.

55:56 - So where we spend that money, such as the trades special education,

56:01 - those are all really necessary points to spend that district money

56:05 - not on overpayment of cyber programs.

56:08 - Representative Nikki Rivera, thank you for your time.

56:12 - Thank you. My pleasure. Thanks for asking.

56:15 - Thanks to Ellen for that interview.

56:18 - Before we go, here's a reminder about House Appropriations.

56:21 - Chair Jordan Harris at the Capitol Blue Cross Forum.

56:26 - He's on today at 12 p.m..

56:29 - That's it for the PC and Capitol preview.

56:31 - I'm Larry Casper. Thanks for watching.