00:04 - The following program is sponsored in part by Customers Bank.

00:12 - Welcome to the PCN Capital Preview I'm Larry Kasper.

00:20 - Our topic is business and Pennsylvania's economy, but first we're joined by Burwood

00:26 - the host, Director of the Center for Opinion

00:29 - Research at Franklin and Marshall College.

00:32 - Welcome.

00:33 - Hi, Larry.

00:34 - Burwood, you just released a poll that involved

00:37 - voters in two state congressional districts, the seventh and the tenth.

00:42 - Why did you choose those two districts?

00:45 - Well, they're considered among the most

00:47 - competitive districts in the United States for Congress.

00:51 - So, given the slight differences in their

00:53 - geographies and the demographic makeup of those

00:56 - two districts, we thought it would be interesting

00:58 - to compare and contrast how the candidates were faring in each of those districts.

01:04 - Tell us something about the direction the midterms are taken.

01:06 - Which part of Pennsylvania makes up District 7, just roughly geographically?

01:11 - Yeah, it's in the Lehigh Valley, so North

01:14 - Hampton, Lehigh counties, that area of the state.

01:18 - And of course, the PA-10 is in South Central PA.

01:22 - Alright, Burwood, thank you very much.

01:24 - Now we're going to jump right into your poll

01:27 - and let's consider the first question we're going to address here.

01:31 - The question is, is PA headed in the right direction or the wrong track?

01:39 - And let's bring your attention to the wrong

01:43 - track was 46% in District 7 and 49% in District 10.

01:48 - But what kind of insight do you get from this as a pollster?

01:51 - Well, you know, this is one of the indicators

01:54 - we use across polls to just give us a sense of how people are feeling.

01:58 - What's the public mode and in this instance,

02:00 - as we've seen for a long time and as we're

02:03 - seeing in these two districts, the mood is generally negative.

02:06 - People are not very happy about a number of things, we'll talk about what some of those

02:11 - things are, but this definitely gives us a sense that the mood is negative.

02:16 - Yeah, let's get into more specific information

02:18 - than as far as what's troubling voters that

02:21 - participated in the poll.

02:23 - The question was, what's the most important problem facing Pennsylvania?

02:29 - And the answer in District 7 was the economy, 29% and it was 22% in District 10.

02:37 - What are some of the events that may have

02:39 - influenced how voters responded here, Burwood?

02:42 - Actually, if you combine some of the other, we have a category that's just the economy

02:47 - and then we have some other things that we

02:49 - add in there like the cost of utility

02:52 - prices, the cost of gas, the cost of housing.

02:55 - You put all those together and in District 7,

02:58 - you're showing like 39% who said the economy

03:01 - was a major problem and it's about a third in District 10.

03:05 - And so the economy, economic concerns, particularly

03:08 - issues around affordability, like increased

03:11 - utility costs, utility costs like rising gas

03:14 - prices, all of those sort of cost of living

03:17 - expenses are really driving economic concerns that people have.

03:22 - And right now, people are more likely to save

03:25 - it, Democrats and Republicans can solve that issue.

03:28 - And that's one of the headwinds that we see

03:31 - Republican candidates across the country face.

03:33 - Let's move on to a poll question that involves

03:36 - Governor Josh Shapiro's job performance

03:38 - and 25% in District 7 said good, 31% said good in District 10.

03:48 - And then let's go on, 25% said poor in

03:52 - District 7 and 29% said poor in District 10.

03:56 - So what strikes me is that the numbers are similar for polar opposite points of view.

04:02 - Well, that's not unusual in these polarized times,

04:06 - Larry, where partisans very much move towards

04:09 - opposition or support based on the party labels.

04:12 - But Governor Shapiro's job approvals are actually pretty high.

04:17 - His numbers in PA8, if you combine the excellent

04:22 - and good numbers are about 48% positive.

04:25 - They're similar in the seventh, about 43% positive.

04:30 - And those numbers are really pretty good, and

04:33 - he's among the most popular governors we've

04:35 - had this century at this point in his first term.

04:39 - And so his numbers are generally good.

04:43 - And that translates, I think, we'll talk about

04:45 - in a second, to pretty strong support among

04:47 - the voters of both districts for his reelection cannabis.

04:51 - Yeah, let's go on to the national scene and

04:53 - consider a poll question that was about Donald

04:57 - Trump's job performance, and in District 7, 60%

05:01 - said poor and 57% poor said poor in District 10.

05:08 - What is the president doing that may have brought out some of these marks, Berwood?

05:13 - Well, I think we go back to that earlier

05:16 - question about the top concerns people have.

05:19 - Those economic concerns that are the top

05:23 - issue for most people, the voters we've talked

05:26 - to, largely the president and his policies

05:29 - for the changes they've seen in their economic fortunes.

05:34 - In fact, more than half of voters in both of these districts say they are personally

05:39 - financially worse off than they were a year ago, and

05:41 - they lay that blame largely at the feet of the president.

05:45 - So it's interesting to compare the president's

05:48 - approval ratings to the governor's approval ratings.

05:53 - The governor is in a much stronger position at the moment.

05:56 - The president's approval ratings are really

05:59 - creating headwinds for Republican candidates up and down the ballot.

06:03 - Well, let's consider another poll question about the president's performance.

06:07 - More specifically about his policies have Trump policies helped or hurt you.

06:12 - Only 3% in district 7 said it hurt a lot.

06:16 - 41% in 10 said it hurt a lot.

06:20 - And talk about this significance of what that

06:23 - might even mean to a midterm election coming up in November, Berwood.

06:27 - Sure.

06:28 - Look, there's this natural tendencies as

06:31 - your viewer knows for things to move against the incumbent party.

06:34 - Doesn't matter if its Republicans or Democrats

06:37 - historically in the modern era, people

06:40 - midterm elections have been bad for the president's party.

06:44 - When you have people who feel that the

06:47 - president's policies have hurt them personally,

06:50 - it's about 60% of voters say it's hurt them versus

06:54 - only about 30% who say his policies have helped them.

06:57 - That means the president and his co-partisans

07:00 - are going to get the blame for whatever the citizens are feeling.

07:06 - And that's going to have a profound impact on these midterms.

07:10 - You've seen nationally that the preference

07:13 - for congressional Democrats is far above that

07:16 - for congressional Republicans and we're

07:18 - seeing that in these different districts, even

07:20 - though those districts are very different from a partisan and demographic makeup.

07:25 - Uh, Berwood, let's talk about some of the

07:27 - statewide races and we're going to start with governor.

07:30 - First, the race for governor in Pennsylvania,

07:33 - according to your poll, 49% in district 7 support

07:36 - Shapiro and 52% him, a 52% in district 10 support Shapiro.

07:44 - Uh, what, what is he doing to get favorable marks from Pennsylvania and set this point?

07:52 - Well, remember, uh, about a year into his,

07:55 - uh, governor's term, his first term, uh, there

07:59 - was that crisis in southeastern Pennsylvania with the highways.

08:03 - He solved that quickly, we saw his job approval

08:06 - ratings go up significantly after that.

08:08 - And I think for the most part, his messaging

08:11 - has focused on his ability to do things for, uh, residents of the state.

08:15 - And so he's got some cross party appeal that you often don't have.

08:19 - And so, you know, I think political watchers

08:22 - would say his style and his approach to governing

08:26 - has helped him feel, you know, be supported by more of the state's voters.

08:31 - And that's translating into this, um, gubernatorial

08:34 - race, Larry, I mean, he's running away with it every poll, whether they're statewide

08:38 - polls or whether they're polls and congressional districts.

08:41 - He's typically got about a 20 point advantage or so.

08:45 - And I think that's largely not just because

08:47 - of his approval ratings, but it's also a sad

08:50 - fact that his opponent really has not been able to run, uh, to raise the kind of money

08:55 - she needs to be competitive, um, and I think

08:58 - that disadvantage in fundraising and advertising

09:01 - has really left the field open for Shapiro, at least

09:04 - to this point and helped him build that strong lead.

09:07 - Let's take a look at the race for Congress in district seven.

09:11 - Bob Brooks leads Ryan McKenzie, 41 percent to 37 percent.

09:17 - Uh, briefly, uh, Burwood, try to tell us, uh, what is giving Bob Brooks campaign the

09:23 - advantage, at least at this point, which is

09:25 - merely a snapshot in time, like you pollsters like to say.

09:29 - Yes, it is a snapshot in time and there's

09:31 - still, uh, a few weeks to go before election day.

09:34 - Uh, but when you include people who are

09:36 - leaning towards a candidate, uh, Brooks's lead is about five percentage point.

09:41 - He's leading 45 percent to 40 percent.

09:44 - But what's important in that district, there's a lot of undecided voters still.

09:47 - Um, and, uh, you know, so anything can happen

09:51 - over the coming weeks, but really we do

09:54 - see these tremendous headwinds for Republican candidates.

09:59 - And what's interesting is if you compare the

10:01 - two different districts that we looked at,

10:04 - you see about the same swing from 2024 to now, uh, about eight points.

10:11 - So district seven went, uh, for, uh, the

10:15 - governor, President Trump by about three points,

10:20 - uh, Brooks's lead is five.

10:21 - That's an eight point swing.

10:22 - And if we talk about CD 10, we see the same

10:24 - kind of swing where President Trump won that

10:27 - district by five points to now Stelson is ahead in that race by about three points.

10:32 - So there's been this uniform swing larry, uh, against the president's part.

10:36 - Uh, yes, uh, in district 10, like you said,

10:39 - Janelle Stelson is leading Scott Perry there

10:41 - according to the poll 46 percent to 42 percent.

10:45 - And it's interesting to the casual observer

10:47 - because Scott Barry is, of course, the incumbent there.

10:50 - Uh, what is Janelle Stelson doing recently

10:53 - that's, uh, giving her the advantage in this race?

10:56 - Try to be brief.

10:57 - Burwood, please.

10:58 - Yeah.

10:59 - Well, I mean, it comes down to messaging and fundraising.

11:01 - She came very close to Scott Perry in 2024,

11:04 - uh, and, and I think, you know, there's some

11:06 - enthusiasm among Democrats for a candidacy, um,

11:09 - and she seems to be attracted some independent voters as well.

11:13 - Uh, last question, Burwood, uh, what was the main takeaway for you here, given the

11:18 - two districts that were included in your poll seven and 10, uh, given those results.

11:23 - What did you learn about those two districts?

11:24 - Did it come out as you expected or was there, was there a surprise?

11:28 - Well, I think the uniformity of the movement

11:32 - away from Republicans compared to 2024, uh,

11:35 - that surprised me because, uh, PA 10 is more

11:39 - Republican, um, and it's a kind of district

11:42 - that you would expect the, uh, president's party

11:45 - to do better in, um, and really we're seeing

11:48 - the same kind of movement away from Republicans across these districts.

11:51 - Uh, and that's pretty ominous message if you're a Republican candidate.

11:55 - Burwood Yoast from Franklin and Marshall College, thank you very much.

11:59 - Thank you, Larry.

12:00 - Good to see you.

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13:14 - Welcome back.

13:15 - Our guest today are Steve Cantonese, president

13:18 - of the Service Employees International

13:21 - Union, local, 668, and David Taylor, president

13:24 - and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association.

13:29 - Welcome, gentlemen.

13:31 - David, let's start with you.

13:32 - How is Pennsylvania's economy affecting your membership?

13:37 - Well, it's a very exciting time, because the

13:40 - U.S. economy is in the middle of a really

13:43 - profound transition, that we are moving away

13:46 - from government employment towards private

13:49 - sector employment, from part-time work to more full-time work, and away from jobs for

13:57 - foreign-born residents and towards American-born residents.

14:02 - I think this is the result of the federal

14:06 - administration's approach to reshoring supply chains,

14:10 - emphasizing domestic production, and that's also

14:14 - the result of tariff policy to create incentives

14:17 - for greater investment in domestic production in the U.S.

14:22 - Steve, how would you characterize the current

14:25 - economy and its effect on your membership?

14:28 - Not particularly similarly, I mean, for our

14:31 - folks, with inflation popping up again, again,

14:35 - my union local represent 25,000 workers across

14:37 - the state, a lot are in public and government

14:40 - services, but higher ed faculty as well,

14:41 - including recently organized Penn State faculty workers.

14:45 - What I'm hearing from workers, whether

14:46 - they're in the public or private sector right

14:47 - now, is cost-aliving is very high right now,

14:50 - gas prices soaring or really putting a pressure

14:53 - on family, and then the actual impact on working people with jobs.

14:58 - Most workers full-time isn't enough to pay the bill, so a lot of people are working

15:02 - part-time, and that's becoming more and more

15:05 - prevalent, and so I think if to move towards

15:08 - a world where there would be a lot more jobs

15:10 - open for folks in America, we would be excited

15:12 - about it, but that's not what people are feeling right now.

15:15 - They're kind of hoping for them praying for some type of relief, and they're not seeing

15:19 - in the near future coming from government, and that's always a concern.

15:23 - Steve, tell me more about union representation.

15:25 - You just said you have 25,000 numbers statewide,

15:28 - but what about union representation in general for Pennsylvania?

15:32 - Are you able to say?

15:33 - Yeah, I think off top of my head, I think our

15:36 - numbers are still about 10% in Pennsylvania,

15:38 - which is well above the national average.

15:41 - But broadly speaking, while unions poll very

15:44 - popular right now, bipartisan fashion above

15:47 - 60% from the last few numbers, I think I saw.

15:50 - Union density continues to decline because

15:52 - the way it kind of rules are written makes it

15:54 - really hard for union organizing to occur, so

15:56 - at the national level, since we've seen the

15:59 - national labor relations board, which kind of

16:01 - oversees private sector organization, basically

16:03 - kind of be, for the current Trump administration,

16:06 - basically move to a halt because it doesn't

16:09 - have a quorum, so it can't even make decisions.

16:12 - What ends up happening is, is union jobs go

16:14 - away, whether it's through attrition or something

16:16 - like that, and the ability to organize is made harder and harder.

16:20 - You start to see those numbers dwindle a little bit.

16:22 - So for example, do we have more union jobs today than we had, say, five years ago?

16:26 - No.

16:27 - No.

16:28 - There's been a study decline that the amount of

16:30 - organizing has increased, organizing efforts.

16:32 - The desire to grow, the movement has increased,

16:35 - but the way laws are written in America right

16:37 - now, and the way the system functions in the

16:39 - private sector puts a lot of risk in difficult

16:42 - circumstances on workers, most workers, especially

16:44 - in the private sector, but public sector

16:46 - as well that choose to organize, that it's a brave task and, you know, every time they

16:52 - went to fight, it's usually a profound change

16:54 - in their life circumstances and takes profound

16:57 - kind of heroism, heroism from them to do that.

17:00 - David, before we move on, let me hear more about your organization, the association.

17:04 - Well, sure. We were founded in 1909 by Bucks County

17:08 - Industrialist Joseph Grundy, who is a textile

17:10 - manufacturer, and we represent the people who make things.

17:14 - Pennsylvania manufacturing is the engine that drives our economy.

17:17 - It's over $110 billion of value added every year, over a half million jobs on the plant

17:23 - floor, but that core manufacturing function

17:25 - sustains millions of additional Pennsylvania

17:28 - jobs and supply chains and distribution

17:30 - networks and vendors of industrial services.

17:32 - Let me ask you a similar question that I just asked Steve.

17:37 - How was manufacturing looking today compared to, say, five years ago?

17:41 - Well, I mean, that's my random yard to look at that.

17:43 - Well, sure. I mean, things are, we've seen some

17:47 - large investments recently, which is welcome.

17:51 - And I mean, I guess the overall challenge with

17:53 - Pennsylvania, even just beyond the manufacturing

17:56 - sector, is that while we grow in the sense that we put one foot in front of the other,

18:03 - is that we only ever grow at a fraction of

18:07 - the national average from 2023 to 2026, U.S.

18:11 - gross domestic product was about 8%, but in

18:14 - Pennsylvania, it was only 5.4% select two thirds

18:18 - of the national average from 2019 to 2026, U.S. GDP growth was 12% in Pennsylvania.

18:25 - It was 6.1, like about half.

18:28 - And so that competitiveness differential, you know, we believe is the result of state

18:34 - public policy decisions, decisions made in Harrisburg, and that this is why we need

18:39 - to do a lot more to improve our competitive

18:42 - position so that we can have more jobs, more dynamism, more prosperity.

18:48 - What has come out of Harrisburg recently that benefits your membership?

18:51 - Legislation wise.

18:52 - Okay.

18:53 - Well, I mean, like everything else, the legislative process is a given take.

18:58 - So there's some good, some bad.

19:00 - I mean, on the negative side, spending

19:04 - continues to rise at an unsustainable rate, and

19:08 - as part of the pay-or community, that's something that concerns us very much.

19:12 - What kind of community better, the people

19:15 - who pay the taxes, the people who pay yours?

19:18 - I apologize.

19:19 - Yeah.

19:20 - So, and certainly, you know, I believe that

19:22 - the overspending is part of what is suffocating growth.

19:26 - And I mean, we have seen progress in terms of, you know,

19:30 - some regulatory reform, with extreme linemen permits.

19:34 - We've also seen improvements with trying to bring Pennsylvania's corporate income tax

19:40 - rate down to something like the national average.

19:43 - Right.

19:44 - And it's going down, as we speak.

19:45 - Yes.

19:46 - It is not.

19:47 - It is slowest rate.

19:48 - Yeah.

19:49 - It is clicking down, and I believe it'll be 2032

19:52 - when it reaches 4.99, which of course is the

19:54 - same rate as Indiana and South Carolina today.

19:58 - So, you know, again, we would argue that

19:59 - it's the, you know, right medication, but the wrong dosage.

20:02 - What about you, Steve?

20:04 - Now, you heard Dave talk about progress made

20:07 - in the permitting process here in Pennsylvania.

20:10 - Also the CNI tax.

20:12 - What are the things that concern your members

20:14 - as far as any legislation coming out of Harrisburg?

20:16 - I mean, the general state of public policy from

20:19 - the federal government on down to Harrisburg, right?

20:22 - I would say from the last budget, we were

20:25 - proud that, you know, for state, state worker

20:27 - and teacher retirees, we were able to get a cost of living increase passed.

20:32 - So for those retirees, the way it used to work

20:34 - is 25 years ago, there was a pension reform

20:36 - bill, and there was regular cost of living that happened since then.

20:40 - But for folks that retired 25 years ago and before that, it used to be a regular, every

20:45 - other year occurrence, wearing a bipartisan fashion.

20:47 - They would give retirees a COLA, and it took

20:49 - us 25 years to actually get them something

20:51 - in place, and these were folks who tended to

20:53 - be in their 80s, 90s, and have been trying

20:55 - to survive off the same pension for that long period of time.

20:58 - So we're happy that got done, but we also

21:00 - feel like it's kind of indicative of how the

21:02 - process has gotten in Harrisburg, that something

21:04 - that used to be a regular occurrence every

21:06 - two years, just to move something, took 25 years to get some type of fix on.

21:12 - Otherwise you are seeing the lack of ability to

21:15 - actually generate revenue coming from Harrisburg,

21:18 - but more and more pressure on county government,

21:20 - so when we see property taxes rise at the local level, I talked to our members and

21:25 - explained to them, that falls on Harrisburg,

21:28 - even if you're Harrisburg politician, or your

21:30 - federal government politician runs around and

21:32 - says, I don't believe in taxing, or doing

21:34 - something like that when they dare their duty.

21:36 - The pressure falls on local and county

21:38 - government who then have to figure out how do I

21:40 - pay for 911 emergency services, crisis, and mental health care, child welfare services,

21:45 - aging services, and that falls on them, and

21:48 - we generally think that when the legislature

21:51 - gets back to session, they need to figure out

21:53 - ways to really look at generating revenue, whether it's having the wealthy pay their

21:58 - fair share, raising the minimum wage, taxing

22:01 - seal games, which a lot of folks know don't have any type of regulation or taxation

22:06 - for the most part on them, things like that

22:07 - should get done in order to start to alleviate some pressure.

22:11 - I know you gentlemen watch the news and

22:13 - certainly you've heard the dire reports about AI.

22:16 - The AFL-CIO president said the following, AI, is the

22:20 - single biggest threat to working people of our lifetime.

22:25 - Steve, I'd better start with you.

22:28 - What do you think of that?

22:30 - It's possible.

22:32 - So I think what kind of issues do you anticipate

22:35 - at this point, you have to think about a future with AI, how it affects working

22:40 - people, maybe AI is monitoring employees and

22:43 - maybe it's disciplining them, maybe it's firing them.

22:45 - I mean it's all these things, right?

22:48 - In a broad sense, for everything you see in the news and all the recent news reports

22:52 - that came out, whether it's leakers talking about the existential threat that's coming,

22:57 - if a working person is watching television, and

23:00 - you repeatedly hear from whether it's industry

23:02 - insiders, the owners of these now, trillion-dollar

23:06 - companies, or whoever else that normally

23:09 - is this thing coming to take your job, but there's a 10% chance it might kill you.

23:13 - I think at a certain point, people is a

23:15 - natural reaction to be like, "Yes, I'm worried about this.

23:18 - I'm afraid of this.

23:19 - " To the extent that the promises or these

23:22 - threats or concerns are making or true, this becomes an existential threat.

23:26 - I think unfortunately also the lesson we've learned over time is number one.

23:30 - A lot of times there are hype around these products, and that continues here as well,

23:35 - but there's also promise on the promise end,

23:37 - it's figuring out how do you make this stuff

23:39 - work for working people, and it isn't just

23:42 - these over-the-top, like, efficiency burdens

23:45 - in spying, whether you're a worker or a

23:47 - consumer, but the other thing, too, I don't

23:49 - think it gets into public light a lot is that.

23:51 - A lot of these apps run off of worker exploitation,

23:55 - not just in America, but in other countries,

23:58 - workers in places like Venezuela and Kenya

24:00 - that have massive gray markets that basically

24:04 - a lot of these big companies exploit workers

24:07 - who work for pennies on the dollar, run into mental health issues because they're

24:12 - basically forced to train these machines that

24:15 - learn off of all kinds of different type of

24:18 - data on the internet, how to think and process,

24:21 - and they go in there and look at all the bad

24:23 - stuff that you would never subject a person you care about to make it actually work.

24:28 - So there is this whole industry behind the scenes that's exploiting people to try to

24:32 - give you this pristine little product, and

24:35 - the line goes up in the stock market because

24:38 - we're being told that it's going to eliminate

24:40 - jobs and have some type of cost savings.

24:42 - So it's an existential threat, and if the tech

24:44 - lives up to the hype, how do we deal with that?

24:47 - But if it doesn't, the economy's really

24:49 - being propped up on this stuff right now, and

24:50 - a lot of businesses are really being incentivized to use tech that.

24:54 - We don't know how strong it's going to be.

24:56 - >> So David, what does the manufacturing

24:58 - community got to say about AI, what are some of the anticipated issues here?

25:03 - >> Well, I mean, I think that the, so in life, change is the only constant.

25:10 - And so the question that becomes how do we keep the good while preventing the bad?

25:16 - So I mean, this new technology has great promise,

25:19 - of course it has to be deployed ethically

25:23 - and responsibly, I believe that much of the doom, saying, and the, and the, the stoking

25:29 - of fear is the result of psychological warfare

25:33 - and propaganda from America's foreign enemies,

25:37 - specifically the dictatorship in Beijing.

25:40 - I would point to the TikTok platform, which is

25:44 - run by China as being an example of what Steve

25:48 - was describing about, like, mental exploitation

25:52 - of, of people using this technology.

25:55 - But, and of course Congress has banned it.

25:57 - The president has allowed it to continue to operate, which is very unwise.

26:03 - But the, the promise of increased computational power, I think, is, is good.

26:11 - And I think it's actually a progression of what

26:13 - we've seen, you know, since the information economy started to dawn in the '90s.

26:18 - And for any of the viewers who are watching us

26:21 - on a smart TV or a desktop computer or a laptop

26:25 - or a tablet or a smartphone, you're already using that power.

26:30 - And as consumers are using more and more,

26:33 - like we're streaming in 4K, the computational

26:38 - capacity behind it to support it has to increase proportionally.

26:44 - And that that's where the need for data centers has arisen.

26:48 - And you know, one of the everyday cost of

26:51 - living concerns actually that Steve brought up is about local property taxes.

26:55 - Well, in fact, in Virginia where they have

26:58 - most of the data centers, not only in the US

27:01 - but in the world, those counties have been able

27:03 - to not only hold the line on local property taxes, they've lowered rates.

27:08 - And so for Pennsylvanians who are, you know,

27:10 - concerned, it's always right to be concerned.

27:13 - It's probably not smart to be afraid, like don't panic.

27:17 - That's never the right response.

27:19 - But for those communities that deploy this

27:22 - successfully, for those communities that welcome

27:26 - a responsibly built and operated data center

27:28 - operation, those are the communities that will experience the property tax relief.

27:33 - Well, are we able to quantify the effect of AI on the future of manufacturing?

27:38 - And we're going to get into data centers more in a minute.

27:40 - Well, sure. I mean, it's all different parts of the same thing.

27:43 - And you know, as we've already seen with the

27:47 - dawn of the fourth industrial revolution,

27:50 - which is the combination of every smaller and

27:53 - more powerful sensors with high and sustained

27:55 - rates of connectivity, that manufacturers can

27:58 - now map the data field around an operation.

28:01 - And this has led to efficiencies in that.

28:04 - You can now tell when something's about to

28:06 - break instead of waiting it to break and have

28:09 - an expensive repair, now you can take it

28:11 - offline temporarily, do a service and be back up and running again.

28:15 - Steve, you wanted to add something?

28:16 - Yeah, I just want to, like, oh, I guess we're going to talk about data centers.

28:20 - We'll get them right.

28:21 - Yep.

28:22 - But at least in terms of, so in terms of, to

28:24 - extend its, I just want to disagree on the

28:26 - point around it being generally psychological

28:28 - warfare or, I guess, at least in the way it's contextualized, again, no disrespect.

28:33 - But whether by the president or whoever that

28:37 - this is just coming from TikTok, I mean,

28:40 - literally over the last few weeks you had not only an insider from Anthropic who left

28:46 - and was supposedly whistle-blowing about stuff

28:48 - going on, but the owners of these companies

28:51 - have spoken out, owners of companies in America.

28:54 - Dari Amade from Anthropic, Sam Altman from OpenAI, and they've all been saying they

29:01 - believe there should be some type of regulation

29:03 - of this technology because of the incredible danger it proposed.

29:08 - Supposedly has.

29:09 - I'm a little bit of something of, I don't

29:10 - know, if I'm a cynic or a skeptic is the right word, that potential exists.

29:14 - I'm not going to lie, right?

29:16 - That there's something very massive change

29:18 - that could happen to the economy in line with

29:20 - an industrial revolutionary change, but I

29:22 - would say to make this, just sound like it's

29:24 - coming from TikTok, I think these companies somewhat sell off

29:27 - the scariness in the doom, and it's mindful to be aware of that.

29:31 - I also just want to flag to these conversations,

29:33 - you need to have workers having a seat

29:34 - at the table because workers are going to be people impacted.

29:37 - That's what I'm going to get, Steve, because

29:39 - at this point is most of the conversation happening within management circles, our

29:43 - management and employees on the same level

29:46 - at this point as far as anticipating AI goes.

29:49 - Yeah, no, it's mostly been at the management level.

29:52 - We've gotten agreement with the governor a year

29:55 - and a half ago that has some AI protections

29:57 - for workers, but importantly, created like a meeting space for the workers at feedback

30:02 - on ways in which the technology can actually

30:04 - be helpful, have them in the loop, have their suggestions be part of the process.

30:09 - You can get in front of it because what we've

30:11 - seen, like when we're talking about every

30:12 - industrial revolution, most trade agreements,

30:15 - workers end up falling on the backside of

30:17 - it and they fair the brunt of any changes that happen without their input.

30:20 - In Allegheny County, we've got a similar

30:22 - agreement, we're trying to make sure workers

30:24 - at these worksites have a seat at the table over their future.

30:26 - All right, gentlemen, thank you very much.

30:28 - I'm going to give you a break, just for a minute,

30:30 - while we look at program notes for here on PCN.

30:34 - On the issues this week, looks at data centers

30:37 - with John Anzer from the PA Chamber of Business and Industry.

30:41 - He'll be here on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

30:45 - On journalist roundtable this week, our guests

30:47 - will be John Finnerty from Capital Wire State

30:50 - Affairs, Stephen Caruso from Spotlight PA, and Denny Ray Renault from Pen Live.

30:58 - They'll be here on Thursday at 7 p.m.

31:01 - On the history and culture side of programming,

31:04 - PCN visits the Craighead House Nature Center in Carlisle.

31:09 - That's on Tuesday at 9 p.m.

31:12 - On the sports, the PCN football game of the week has Southern Columbia taking on Mount

31:17 - Carmel, courtesy of Mount Carmel High School Television.

31:21 - Kickoff will be on Friday live at 7 p.m.

31:25 - You can watch this show and all our public

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31:39 - PCN is everything Pennsylvania, where a 501c3

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31:53 - Okay, gentlemen, we're talking about business

31:55 - in the economy here today, and we had brought

31:57 - up data centers a couple of minutes ago, so now, let's dig into that deeper.

32:02 - David, I'm going to start with you.

32:05 - What are the consequences for data centers, if any, for manufacturing?

32:10 - Well, I mean, the data centers are essentially

32:15 - the back office of the internet and the

32:20 - cloud, and so as I mentioned earlier, as our

32:24 - society becomes more and more, becomes greater

32:28 - users of information technology that the build

32:31 - out of this capacity to support it becomes necessary.

32:34 - I mean, manufacturers are the number one consumers

32:37 - of information technology, where the number

32:39 - one investors in research and development, so

32:42 - having robust computational capacity is critical

32:46 - for the success of our industry, and I mean,

32:49 - furthermore, I'm just getting back to the

32:52 - point that I was trying to raise, that there

32:55 - is a very profound competition going on between

32:58 - United States and the dictatorship in Beijing

33:01 - over who is going to be preeminent with artificial intelligence, building out this

33:07 - capacity of computational power is critical for American success in that competition.

33:14 - If the dictatorship in Beijing is successful

33:17 - in winning the AI race, we have seen the way

33:20 - that they have used technology to control their

33:23 - society, to control their people, and that

33:26 - they will essentially do that to the entire world, so this is exceptionally important

33:31 - for American sovereignty, for American national

33:35 - security, as well as our economic success.

33:38 - So again, everyone is right to be concerned about something new and different, but all

33:44 - the issues that have been raised in terms of

33:47 - energy usage, water usage, noise pollution wanted.

33:51 - These are all solvable problems, and we've

33:54 - already seen, again, with business, the process

33:58 - of continuous improvement, that these

34:01 - challenges will be easier and easier to solve.

34:04 - These computers once are up and running these big computer buildings.

34:07 - They require almost no municipal services,

34:10 - so this is like an ongoing mint of money for local government.

34:14 - They should welcome it.

34:16 - What about you, Steve?

34:17 - I'm going to kind of go out on a limb here

34:19 - and ask if there's any connection to working

34:21 - people in your union and the success or failure of data centers.

34:25 - I mean, I would say, again, I disagree with a lot of the premise from my friend today.

34:32 - We tend when we run into a minute of money, it usually ends up being closer to a gold

34:35 - mine, but that gold mine is going to go dry at some point.

34:39 - This is the one business in the world I'm hearing of right now, where the owners that

34:46 - have the billionaire owners that own the machines

34:50 - in this trillion dollar process are saying

34:53 - our machines are dangerous and at some point they might kill you.

34:57 - There's a one in ten chance they might kill you.

34:59 - That's the numbers they're putting out and

35:01 - they're saying, regulate us, but we can't help it.

35:05 - We're just going to keep developing this machine and they do.

35:07 - They continue developing it without regulation, right?

35:10 - We treat it like a waterfall to a certain point that it just happens.

35:14 - It's just nature and it's not.

35:16 - There is the ability to pause, to slow down,

35:18 - to make sure there's effective guardrails,

35:20 - like what we would do for building any other technology.

35:24 - Just on the data center piece, it demystify for me when I realize the reason the video

35:28 - is such a massive rich company at this point.

35:31 - I think it's one of the trillion dollar

35:33 - companies right now, is it made gaming chips?

35:35 - Data centers are ostensibly run on these

35:38 - gaming chips that were video gamers like myself in my younger days even now.

35:42 - Use these video game chips to play video games

35:45 - and the companies realized, oh, if I just

35:47 - have massive processing power, I can have these AI systems do a little bit more.

35:53 - So once you look behind the scenes, it's not that there was

35:57 - some new technology on that data center front that was created.

36:00 - They realized they had to have a building

36:02 - filled with a bunch of gaming chips that's going to need to eat a bunch of energy.

36:07 - It's been right at this point, raising energy

36:09 - prices and communities that are around them.

36:11 - I would just say like that's, we get to a

36:13 - certain point where it's not going to be able to mint money forever.

36:17 - They try to make a brief rebuttal in 30 seconds.

36:20 - Yes, sorry about that.

36:21 - So long as the computers are running and

36:24 - computational power is being provided, the systems will be profitable.

36:29 - I also think that the current industry leaders

36:32 - are trying to essentially bring in regulation

36:35 - for the purpose of preventing future competition.

36:38 - So I think they're attempting to make their

36:41 - industry captive and that's what they're calling for regulation.

36:45 - Let's move on to the subject of tariffs,

36:47 - gentlemen, and let's keep in mind that Canada

36:50 - is Pennsylvania's biggest customer and now

36:54 - it's imposing its own tariffs, 15% to 50% on

36:58 - US goods, David, what's that going to do to

37:01 - demand for things that come from Pennsylvania?

37:05 - Well, it's actually a complicated issue, the

37:08 - approach of the Trump administration is reciprocity.

37:13 - We want to be treated the way that we treat others and it was very interesting because

37:17 - the Canadian broadcasters brought on a Canadian

37:22 - distiller to respond to American tariffs

37:25 - of 50% and much to the surprise of everyone involved, that the distiller said actually

37:33 - that 50% tariff from the Americans is less

37:36 - than the 70% tariffs that the other provinces impose on my product.

37:42 - So Canada does not have a commerce clause and its constitution, the way that we do.

37:47 - So there's quite a web of tariffs and

37:50 - penalties and cartels and things that are built

37:55 - in and beyond that there are also a lot of serious issues regarding national security,

38:02 - the drug trade, other things that Canada

38:06 - needs to work on with us and all those things

38:09 - are wrapped up with these economic discussions.

38:13 - And just briefly, what is Pennsylvania exporting to Canada anyway in general?

38:19 - Well, Pennsylvania exports a lot of metals,

38:23 - industrial chemicals, and the electronics are computer stuff.

38:28 - I mean, there's some of that certainly, it's

38:31 - more Michigan that has the automotive components

38:35 - with the auto industry that's also in Ontario.

38:40 - What about you, Steve?

38:41 - Are you watching the tariffs discussion at all?

38:44 - Unfortunately, yeah.

38:45 - I mean, there's, so coming from labor movement

38:49 - again, I'm not going to say, I blanket

38:51 - opposed tariffs in all ways, shapes, or forms,

38:54 - there's targeted industries that they can utilize to protect American workers, jobs,

38:59 - make sure that when offshoring happens, like

39:02 - workers in other countries aren't being exploited.

39:04 - What we run into though is the way in which tariffs have

39:08 - been used, Trump too is a lot different than Trump won.

39:11 - And the second administration blanket tariffs,

39:15 - I come from areas where my understanding of tariffs came from at some point.

39:20 - I would argue with friends who are a lot more

39:22 - on the business side, free market open market,

39:24 - all this stuff, and hearing the discourse change is a big kind of odd to me.

39:29 - When you run into tariff industries that aren't

39:31 - vital to Americans, and we've been bringing

39:34 - in products for many, many years, and now the

39:36 - tariffs are just raising costs for industries

39:39 - we're not bringing in, like coffee growers and

39:41 - Columbia and things like that, well, at the same time again, we're engaging in this,

39:47 - this seemingly going and going and going more

39:50 - in a run, like these cost issues are pinching,

39:54 - and the quote unquote reciprocity I think

39:58 - issue with the broad based tariffs we're into

40:00 - an issue where it's just raising costs across

40:02 - the board instead of being strategic and

40:04 - protecting American workers in places they need to

40:06 - enforcing other countries to treat their workers

40:09 - better, not just treating it as a retribution tactic.

40:12 - Well, let's talk about a good news, manufacturing story.

40:16 - You could say this coming to Pennsylvania

40:18 - has to do with a company called Chobani, they

40:21 - make yogurt, dairy manufacturing, operation that will invest $1.

40:26 - 2 billion here in Pennsylvania and give us some perspective on that

40:31 - investment, just how significant is that billion dollars?

40:36 - Is that a lot?

40:37 - Oh, absolutely.

40:38 - No, that's a very large investment, and it's

40:40 - something that I understand is going to be very important for Pennsylvania's dairy

40:45 - farmers, and that's one of the reasons why that

40:47 - particular facility will be cited in the Lehigh Valley.

40:51 - Yeah, I understand that the plant will

40:54 - process 30% of all milk currently produced in Pennsylvania.

40:58 - I wonder why they settled here.

40:59 - Was it the abundance of dairy farms?

41:01 - I mean, very much so, in the same way that Milton Hershey built his facility in dairy

41:07 - township in Dauphin County because of the rich

41:10 - farm land and the large number of dairy farms in the area.

41:13 - The same thing is true out there, Lehigh County.

41:16 - Steve, do you think any union jobs will come

41:18 - out of this new investment at Chobani in Allentown?

41:21 - I mean, they should.

41:22 - I've taught my hat, I don't know if there is a union agreement in place, but most of

41:26 - these jobs should be looking towards when

41:28 - they come in to Pennsylvania, make it easier

41:31 - for workers to unionize, have it get in the

41:32 - seat at the table over their wages benefits, terms and conditions.

41:35 - If you're working at Chobani, Steve Katniese at SEIU68.

41:38 - org, reach out, I'll connect you with the union organizer if you need to.

41:42 - Steve, keep the floor for a moment and

41:43 - consider an issue that's being discussed quite

41:45 - a bit in Harrisburg, and it's not referred to

41:48 - as parental leave, so just how big a concern

41:51 - is prone to leave for your members, what's

41:53 - the state of the art, what do you hope it to turn into?

41:56 - I mean, I think we've gotten complacent America

41:59 - that, you know, things that we fought in

42:02 - very hard for years, many, many years ago, like say the eight-hour work day.

42:06 - This isn't something that came from divine law

42:08 - or biblical text, workers fought, and in some

42:10 - cases died to have a reasonable eight-hour work day, right?

42:15 - And when it comes to expanding benefits for

42:17 - working people, things like paid parental leave,

42:19 - I think OECD polling of like the 42 countries

42:22 - that participate, we were the only one that

42:24 - nationally does not have any type of paid

42:26 - parental leave, I think there's over 180 countries

42:29 - in the world that have some type of paid parental leave.

42:31 - So as a union, we've been bargaining this before our

42:34 - members gradually over and over for several years.

42:36 - What are you looking for?

42:37 - How many weeks in other words?

42:38 - I mean, there isn't a specific number to be honest

42:41 - with you, it depends on what happens at the workplace.

42:44 - We initially got the first, with the

42:46 - governor, we got Governor Wolf, we got 12 and

42:48 - Governor Shapiro, I think increased that to

42:51 - 15, but I know there's been proposals out there

42:53 - for 18, I think Estonia has like 80 weeks of

42:56 - paid parental leave, so the discussion really

42:59 - needs the zero, I think it's 80, Estonia.

43:03 - And so, you know, that's, I think cultures are going to be different.

43:07 - Croatia, I think has some very high number similar to that, I think.

43:12 - But to the point, it's this is stuff that we

43:14 - represent workers that do childcare development,

43:17 - licensing, childcare workers, and they'll tell

43:20 - you what those first weeks are very important

43:23 - for a family and what it actually does at

43:25 - the end of the day is for so a lot of working

43:27 - women out of their jobs, working parents, and it's important

43:31 - that, you know, it's need time to bond with the new child.

43:34 - Yeah, and it's not just that for the eight hour workday,

43:36 - it's not the just unions have eight hour workdays.

43:39 - Everyone typically has an eight hour workday if you

43:40 - have a full time job, that's the basis, baseline.

43:43 - So it's not just enough that union workers get

43:45 - paid parental leave, we think it's important

43:47 - that all working people in America have access

43:49 - to paid parental leave, so we're excited

43:51 - to see the developments happening in Allegheny County.

43:53 - How much of an issue is parental leave within the membership of your association?

43:58 - Well, I mean, in the same way that Steve pointed

44:01 - out that unfunded state mandates on local

44:03 - government are burdensome, that unfunded mandates on employers are also burdensome.

44:10 - And so, you know, this has been an issue

44:12 - that has been, you know, worked out workplace

44:17 - by workplace, and that the proposal in Allegheny

44:21 - County of 18 weeks is, I mean, it's just,

44:25 - we'll see how it goes.

44:26 - But it's an extremely expensive mandate

44:29 - that's being handed down, you know, it takes

44:33 - that decision away from employees and employers

44:35 - as to how those things are going to be

44:38 - balanced with new parents, new moms, and again, it's a command and control decision

44:46 - by the government that we just think is expensive and unwise.

44:50 - David, let's explore a statement you made about what you called lawsuit abuse.

44:55 - You said lawsuit abuse is an absolute plague in Pennsylvania.

44:59 - It is.

45:00 - I'll give us a plane every day example.

45:02 - Well, I mean, we have a very powerful lawsuit industry based in Philadelphia.

45:08 - It may be America's lawsuit abuse capital,

45:11 - and that's interesting to call it an industry.

45:14 - Oh, well, I mean, it very much is because it's not at all about, you know, justice.

45:19 - It's about using the courts and the law as an avenue of

45:24 - attack on industries that have not here to for been plundered.

45:31 - And so the fact that we have, you know,

45:33 - unrestrained lawsuit abuse, that the litigation

45:36 - industry is one of the biggest spenders in

45:38 - politics that they have because Pennsylvania

45:41 - elects jurists that they play an outside role in choosing who sits on the courts.

45:48 - And this is, for example, this is why we saw

45:51 - the loss of the venue reform from a quarter

45:54 - century ago that helped to arrest the the

45:56 - medical malpractice insurance crisis that was

45:59 - underway, that that a reform was agreed to

46:02 - whereby that medical malpractice lawsuits should

46:05 - be heard in the county where the harm is alleged to have occurred.

46:09 - You can't just move it to the most permissive

46:11 - jurisdiction hoping for a big payday,

46:14 - usually the big cities, usually Philadelphia.

46:16 - And that despite the success that that's had

46:19 - in stabilizing our health care profession

46:22 - and services to our citizens, that the judges have removed that.

46:27 - And as a result, that medical malpractice

46:29 - lawsuits file in the city of Philadelphia have doubled.

46:32 - And that's going to cost every consumer, every

46:35 - patient, and it's just bad for our health care.

46:38 - It's bad for society.

46:39 - Steve, let's move on to another subject and that would be workplace safety.

46:42 - What kind of reputation does Pennsylvania have for keeping its workers safe?

46:46 - And certainly that's a concern amongst your members.

46:49 - I mean, it's pretty hit and miss for our workers, especially in the public sector.

46:54 - Not great.

46:55 - Pennsylvania.

46:56 - I'm not a lot of folks know this, but OSHA for

46:58 - occupational safety and health protections.

47:01 - And the public sector states have to opt in to get those protections.

47:05 - And Pennsylvania is one of the states that

47:07 - has not opted in for OSHA coverage for public sector employees.

47:10 - So there's been several years, again, we

47:12 - talked about the general assembly being unable to move things forward.

47:16 - The Jake Schwab worker safety bill has been

47:18 - proposed by Pat Harkens, finally got through the house.

47:21 - I think the last couple sessions, which would

47:23 - allow OSHA protections for public workers, whether you're a road crew.

47:27 - For my previous work as a county assistance

47:28 - office worker, workers that were getting sick

47:30 - during COVID, like any type of job in the public

47:33 - sector to get some type of OSHA protection outside of that.

47:36 - Their main actual protection is you hopefully

47:39 - are unionized and have health and safety language in your union contract.

47:42 - But again, our position is that every worker

47:44 - chef, some type of safety in the workplace.

47:46 - And there's a big glaring hole for workers in the public sector right now that don't

47:51 - have equal protections to those in the private sector.

47:54 - And certainly workers in the manufacturing community can be exposed to hazards.

47:58 - Oh, yeah.

47:59 - Workplace safety in an industrial environment is paramount.

48:02 - And that's one of the reasons why I had been

48:05 - so vocal about the plans that the governor

48:09 - and others have for mass commercializing recreational marijuana.

48:13 - Because for our employees in an industrial

48:16 - environment, we have to have a safe workplace.

48:19 - And that includes, in most instances, employees who can pass a drug test.

48:24 - And so by increasing the availability of

48:27 - marijuana for recreational purposes, you'll have more people who are users.

48:32 - And thereby, you'll have a smaller pool of

48:35 - potential new hires when we already have a workforce

48:38 - crisis with not enough folks available to work.

48:41 - And you're cutting off people from really

48:44 - great careers that they otherwise might be able to have.

48:48 - We only have about two minutes left in this segment, gentlemen.

48:50 - Now, let's reflect on what you hope lawmakers

48:53 - will accomplish now that they're back in

48:55 - Harrisburg from their summer recess, about 30 seconds, Steve, if he would.

49:00 - We get so used to dysfunction in Harrisburg,

49:02 - it's not just good enough to have an on-time budget.

49:05 - It should be a budget that works and fights for working people and from the union side

49:08 - makes it easier for workers to organize, to

49:11 - get first contracts and provide actual revenue,

49:14 - including things we mentioned earlier, such

49:17 - as legalizing skill games or regulating skill

49:20 - games, raise the minimum wage and, again, just

49:22 - to degrade the end, but legalizing marijuana

49:25 - as well, finding ways to make it simpler,

49:27 - decriminalizing processes and making it easier for

49:30 - working people to survive in America and

49:32 - reduce in the cost impact on workers right now.

49:34 - How about you, David?

49:35 - What do you want lawmakers to take on?

49:37 - I mean, between now and the end of the session,

49:39 - just, I don't know, just leave us alone.

49:41 - They have a limited number of session days, don't they?

49:43 - Yeah.

49:44 - I mean, I think just leaving us alone is probably a big, big dream.

49:47 - All right, our guests have been Steve Katnies,

49:49 - president of the Service Employees International

49:52 - Union, local 668, and David Taylor, president

49:56 - and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association.

50:01 - Thanks for joining us.

50:02 - Thank you.

50:03 - Thank you.

50:04 - A piece he has, Ellen Franz, talk to represent

50:07 - a brad Roy about a timetable for legalizing skill games.

50:12 - Welcome to our program.

50:13 - For those who may be unfamiliar, can you explain what skill games are?

50:17 - Yes, skill games are sort of like slot

50:20 - machines, but there's an element of skill that

50:22 - the player has to conduct in order to win.

50:26 - And they're located in a lot of clubs, you

50:29 - know, VFW post, fire department social clubs,

50:32 - elk's lodges, as well as at coin laundries, convenience stores, and places like that.

50:37 - This past summer, the Pennsylvania Supreme

50:39 - Court determined that skill games were illegal.

50:41 - Could you talk a bit about that court case and what happened?

50:45 - Yeah, the court ruled that they're illegal,

50:48 - prior court rulings had ruled that they are not gambling devices.

50:53 - In Pennsylvania, it's illegal to gamble on things that are complete random luck.

50:58 - You know, you cannot gamble on flipping a coin, because that's random luck.

51:04 - But you can gamble on a game of horseshoes or something like that that involves skill.

51:09 - Well, these games have a part of skill that's

51:12 - required, and that was the whole basis of saying

51:15 - they're not gambling devices, but the Supreme

51:17 - Court just said they are gambling devices and

51:20 - the court gave the legislature 120 days to pass a law to deal with it, or the police

51:28 - are going to start going around and seizing all the machines on October 13th.

51:32 - Now you mentioned this October 13th deadline,

51:35 - you have proposed a bill to extend that deadline.

51:38 - How much more time do you think is needed and why?

51:41 - What my bill does in a roundabout way, it grants a six-month extension to April 13th.

51:47 - We can't really void a court-imposed deadline,

51:50 - and my bill doesn't attempt to do that.

51:53 - What my bill does is it amends the state gambling law.

51:57 - We add a new category of gambling devices that are called skill games.

52:02 - The gambling law currently mentions slot machines,

52:06 - table games, online gambling, things like that.

52:10 - It would add a category called skill games, and it would state that they're untaxed,

52:15 - unregulated, and they can be located anyplace.

52:18 - Now, that sounds a little bit crazy to some

52:19 - people, but that's exactly what's been going

52:21 - on for the last 10 years, since these things came on the scene.

52:24 - They're untaxed, unregulated, and you can have them anyplace.

52:27 - What my bill would do is it would make those

52:31 - legal for the next six months until April 13th,

52:34 - but then the bill would sunset on that day, so

52:36 - they would become illegal again on that day.

52:39 - That gives the legislature six months to come up with the solution.

52:44 - Do you support skill games and if so, why?

52:47 - I do.

52:48 - My own volunteer fire department, we have skill

52:51 - games, we're a small township, we struggle

52:53 - financially, a lot of other volunteer fire departments have clubs to support the fire

52:57 - department, elk's lodges, you know, they use

53:00 - skill game money to fund college scholarships

53:03 - for kids, VFW posts, American legions, you

53:06 - know, they use skill game money to build ramps,

53:09 - you know, wheelchair ramps for disabled veterans,

53:12 - a lot of small businesses, you know, some

53:14 - coin laundries can barely stay profitable, but

53:16 - the skill games give them a little bit of extra

53:19 - revenue, little independent restaurants and stores.

53:22 - And I think adults have the right to do what they want to do

53:26 - if it doesn't interfere too much with what other people do.

53:29 - So if it's legal to have slot machines at

53:32 - casinos, there's only a dozen casinos in the

53:34 - whole state and other parts of the state, if

53:36 - people want to play some kind of a similar device that they should be able to.

53:41 - Lastly, where is this bill in the legislative process currently?

53:45 - Well, I'm just starting.

53:46 - I sent out my co-sponsorship memo seeking

53:49 - co-sponsors and the actual detailed language

53:52 - of the bill is currently being drafted and I do want to point out there's almost

53:57 - a zero percent chance that we're going to pass

54:00 - some kind of permanent bill by October 13th.

54:04 - We don't even go into session until September 28th.

54:07 - There's only six scheduled voting session days between now and October 13th deadline.

54:13 - A lot of the Democrats want to use any possible

54:16 - skill game tax revenue for mass transit.

54:18 - A lot of Republicans would rather see the

54:20 - money be used for the general fund or to help

54:22 - fire departments or, you know, things like that.

54:25 - So, you know, fighting over how the money is

54:27 - going to be spent fighting over the tax

54:30 - rate, the governor proposed a 52 percent tax.

54:33 - Some people think it should only be a 10 percent tax.

54:36 - So there's just a lot of things to work out.

54:38 - There's no chance an agreement is going to be made by October 13th.

54:42 - So I really hope my colleagues will support my

54:44 - legislation to give us six months to get it done.

54:47 - Representative Brad Roy, thank you for joining us.

54:50 - Thank you.

54:52 - Thanks to Ellen for that interview before we go.

54:56 - Here's a reminder about on the issues this week.

54:59 - The topic will be data centers with John Anzer

55:03 - from the PA Chamber of Business and Industry.

55:06 - He'll be here on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

55:10 - That's it for the PCN Capital Preview.

55:12 - I'm Larry Casper.

55:14 - Thanks for watching.

55:33 - [Music]