Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg. Photo: Waldteufel – Fotolia

Following is a listing of executive and public policy action from the week of Nov. 5. The General Assembly was in recess. The state House of Representatives was scheduled to go back to session on Tuesday. The Pennsylvania Senate's next scheduled session day is Wednesday.

Lt. Gov.'s Residence

Lt. Gov.-elect John Fetterman said on Nov. 7 he does not plan to move into the lavish state-owned official residence—called the State House—and hopes to make it available for some type of public use, The Associated Press reported.

Fetterman—who was elected Nov. 6 as Gov. Tom Wolf's running mate on the Democratic ticket, said he may rent a place in Harrisburg, but that he's definitely not moving his family to Harrisburg or to the residence at Fort Indiantown Gap.

“We're not going to reside in the mansion,” Fetterman said during a postelection visit to the Capitol newsroom. “My wife and I envision, and the governor supports, some kind of public usage of it. Particularly swimming for children.”

He said his family will remain in Braddock, the western Pennsylvania steel town where he is mayor.

“Not that Harrisburg's not a wonderful town,” Fetterman said, noting he grew up outside York, about 25 miles from the capital. But he added his family has “a real strong allegiance both practically but also symbolically to the community that I've been lucky enough to lead for the past four terms.”

Fetterman beat Lt. Gov. Mike Stack and three others in the Democratic primary in May. Wolf and Fetterman were easily elected over Republican gubermatorial nominee Scott Wagner and his running mate, Jeff Bartos.

Wolf in 2017 stripped Stack of Pennsylvania State Police protection and limited cleaning, groundskeeping and maintenance at the residence, after a look into how state employees were treated there and the use of the state police troopers. The results of the investigation have not been reported publicly.

As lieutenant governor, Fetterman will preside over sessions of the state Senate.

Lieutenant governors chair the state Board of Pardons, sit on the emergency management council and typically take a leading role in working with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

Wolf has not moved into the governor's residence along the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, instead commuting 20 miles to the Capitol from his home in Mount Wolf, a York County borough named for an ancestor.

Military Medals

Pennsylvania Treasurer Joe Torsella on Nov. 8 announced an initiative to return the Treasury's unclaimed military decorations, which has put 85 service awards back in the hands of the veterans who earned them, but hundreds of decorations remain available to claim.

“With each return, we've seen how service medals can embody so much more than an act of military merit,” Torsella said in a statement. “These decorations are a physical connection to a veteran's proudest moments and cherished memories, and, this Veterans Day, they belong with our military members and their families.”

The state Treasury frequently conducts inventory processes and currently holds over 850 military decorations as unclaimed property, including dozens of Purple Hearts and Bronze Stars. Many of the service awards have been in Treasury's possession for decades, and the rightful owners could be a veteran's relative.

Torsella encourages any Pennsylvanian with military members in their family to search their loved one's name.Treasury policy is to never liquidate military decorations in the hopes that the rightful owners come forward or are found.

In September, Torsella unveiled a web page dedicated solely to helping veterans find their lost or missing war medals. The new search function allows users to search their names, or the name of a loved one, to see if Treasury is holding a military decoration as unclaimed property.

Business Expansion

Wolf on Nov. 7 announced more than $3 million in new low-interest loan approvals through the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority (PIDA) program for five business projects in Berks, Bucks, Columbia, Cumberland and Luzerne counties that will enable companies to grow and expand production, prepare an industrial park for occupation by businesses, and enable another company to come to Pennsylvania for the first time.

The projects are expected to create and retain more than 925 full-time jobs, according to a statement from the Wolf administration.

“The projects approved today will not only help companies expand and create jobs right here in Pennsylvania, but they will establish new sites to support future growth that will have a significant positive impact on Pennsylvania's economy,” Wolf said.

In 2018, PIDA has approved $76.5 million in low-interest loans that have resulted in $109.5 million in private investment and supported 4,167 created and retained full-time jobs, the statement said.

Pension Reform

Pennsylvania's total unfunded pension liability stands at nearly $70 billion and is growing, according to a policy memo from the Commonwealth Foundation, a Harrisburg conservative-leaning think tank.

Lawmakers passed Act 5 of 2017 to get politics out of pensions.

It moved new employees from a defined-benefit plan to a hybrid defined-benefit and defined-contribution plan, which the memo said was “a meaningful step away from defined-benefit plans, in which politics dictate benefits and taxpayers bear all the risk.”

But it is now time tackle the pension liability, the group said in a memo published on Nov. 6.

The foundation recommended that the General Assembly pass House Bill 778, which would increase pension contributions to pay off the unfunded liability over a 20-year period.

Wages and Investment

Leaders of a nonpartisan progressive-leaning campaign group said the Nov. 6 election brought in dozens of lawmakers who have pledged to support an agenda focused on raising wages and increasing public investment in education, infrastructure and the environment.

The “We the People—Pennsylvania” campaign claimed that 47 state representatives and 11 senators including the leaders of the Democratic Party in both the House and Senate, have endorsed its agenda.

“Changing the direction of a state as large as Pennsylvania is a large project that takes some time. But Pennsylvania took a huge step towards embracing a new politics that focuses common-sense policies that work for all of us, not just for the wealthy and well-connected,” said Marc Stier, the director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, in a post-election statement.

Stier said that five Pennsylvania Senate seats and 11 state House seats flipped from conservative lawmakers who embrace the narrative of cutting taxes and spending, and that 13 of the candidates who replaced them endorsed the “We the People” platform. •