Drug and Alcohol Expo Set for Oct. 26
Join me for our annual Drug and Alcohol Awareness Expo, set for Thursday, Oct. 26, from 6-8 p.m. at Palmerton High School, located at 3525 Fireline Road Palmerton.
The expo will feature dozens of resources with information about preventing drug and alcohol use and promoting healthy habits. Information about Narcan, the heroin overdose antidote, will be available, as well as tips for parents, including a mock teen bedroom. A private room will be set up for discreet discussions with a physician.
This event is open to all ages, and children are invited to wear Halloween costumes to trick-or-treat with vendors at the expo. A prescription drug-drop box will be on site for the safe disposal of unwanted or expired prescription drugs.
House Passes Revenue Plan to Help Close Out Budget
In seeking to close out the 2017-18 state budget process, the House this week voted on part of a revenue package to finish funding the 2016-17 fiscal year and maintain operations for the current fiscal year.
House Bill 542 would raise the bulk of revenue needed to close the budget gap by securitizing the Tobacco Settlement Fund, ensuring third-party online sellers remit the sales tax and applying the sales tax to fireworks. The bill now goes to the Senate.
Additional measures still need to be passed on gaming reforms and reinvesting excessive balances from dormant state funds, and the fiscal code bill to finalize the budget package.
House Republicans have been focused on standing up for taxpayers, first by successfully passing a spending plan that spent much less than the governor proposed, and now by approving a revenue plan without any broad-based taxes to further burden individuals, families and employers.
Improving Education at All Levels
As part of the Public School Code portion of the 2017-18 budget package, the House passed several important initiatives designed to enhance curriculum and improve the educational process.
Changes to overall kindergarten through 12th-grade education include delaying the implementation of the Keystone Exam as a graduation requirement until the 2019-20 school year; prohibiting “lunch shaming” to ensure all students have access to school lunches; adding opioid abuse and prevention education to drug and alcohol abuse curriculum and enhancing agriculture education offerings; and increasing the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) by $10 million to $135 million.
To help with public school administration, changes are also being sought to require training for new members of a school’s governing body and to allow a school to furlough teachers for economic reasons and basing those decisions on performance, rather than seniority.
The legislation now heads back to the Senate for concurrence.
Visitors at the Capitol
Rep. Jerry Knowles and I had the opportunity to host two students, Zoryana Duda and Emily Roberti, seniors at Marian Catholic High School, at the Capitol on Monday. They job-shadowed me and learned about the legislative process. Michael Duda, Zoryana's father, joined us for the day. Thank you for coming!
REAL ID Extension Granted
On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security granted Pennsylvania a REAL ID enforcement extension through Oct. 10, 2018. This extension means that residents will not face access issues when entering federal facilities or boarding commercial aircraft through that date.
PennDOT anticipates that REAL ID-compliant driver’s licenses will be available at the customer’s option in March 2019.
Learn more here.
Mansion House Hill Road Cleanup Project is Complete
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 5 announced on Thursday that work to remediate a recent rock slide along Route 209/Mauch Chunk Street in Mahoning Township is now complete
Workers removed fallen rock from the roadway, scaled back and removed additional rock from the mountain, and milled and paved Route 209 north in the work area.
On Sept. 8, multiple large rocks slid off the side of the mountain alongside Route 209 between Race Street and Oak Avenue, causing the two-lane section of Route 209 north going up Flagstaff Mountain (“Mansion House Hill”) to be reduced to a single lane.
All lanes on Route 209 are now open.
White House Visit
To advocate for community concerns and enhance cooperation between local, state and federal governments, I joined dozens of my colleagues for a visit to the White House on Oct. 12 for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives White House Conference.
The conference was organized by the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, with the intent to develop a working relationship between the White House, federal agencies and Pennsylvania state House members.
It was truly an honor to visit the White House and I am very impressed by the administration’s determination to change the way Washington, D.C. operates. The administration is seeking input from Pennsylvania legislators on how to grow our state’s economy. This is a refreshing change from the top-down approach of the past.
As part of the trip, the legislators toured the White House and attended a five-hour conference with top administration officials. The conference discussions covered a broad range of topics including the economy, health care, energy, opioids and how federal regulations can hinder local economic development. A bipartisan delegation of over 60 legislators from across the state attended the conference.
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