June Senate Journals

With the election coverage I've been remiss in reviewing the online state senate journals. The Pennsylvania Senate Journals for June were meaty, or at least dealt with meaty subjects. They are available online here. On a number of days Sen. Fumo gave his views on the Iraq War. I will say again that I think it is inappropriate to use public recognition of those who died in battle to espouse your political views.

June Senate Journals

6/12 Sen. Piccola responds to Sen. Fumo and mentions Truman. Fumo says he has a lot in common with Truman including a birthday.

6/13 Sen. Tartaglione on minimum wage

6/14 Sen. Tartaglione on minimum wage

6/20 a discussion on mercury emissions

6/21 marriage act, p. 1771-1781. There are some very good statements made in these pages and some that made me roll my eyes. There were too many of each to quote from them. If it is an issue you have an interest in, please look at the online version and read through yourself.

6/22 minimum wage, p. 1794 -1799.

6/27 gambling (p. 1836 of printed version) a bill to delete provisions relating to supplier licenses. Sen. Fumo says “If we do away with the distributors, there are only two people we are helping, we are helping the licensees who are about to make hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and we are helping the manufacturers. We are doing nothing for the people of Pennsylvania.” [Note: what about property tax reform? Wasn’t that the whole purpose here?]

On subsequent pages Sen. Orie speaks in favor of doing away with middlemen. “From the gaming board which must police these licenses, to the manufacturers who must pay for these unneeded services, to the casinos that will pay a higher cost for the slot machines so the middleman can get their cut, and to the workforce whose wages may not be as high because more casino revenue must be dedicated to pay the suppliers for unneeded services, this is layers and layers of bureaucracy and, more importantly, is the inference of political nepotism being utilized with these suppliers.”

Fumo: "There is no fraud, corruption, and criminal activity. We have a gaming board doing in-depth background investigations. We are not going to have that problem.”

6/30 minimum wage

pp. 1889 - 1891 an interesting discussion on the problem finding qualified sign language interepreters.