Capitol Report

Following is a listing of executive and legislative action for Nov. 18 and the week of Nov. 21. Both houses of the General Assembly were in recess at press time. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives and the Pennsylvania Senate had no scheduled return date.

Dem House Majority

Democrats won a suburban Philadelphia state House race Nov. 18, giving them barely enough seats to take the chamber majority after 12 years, although two of their reelected incumbents also won higher offices and a third died in October.

The Associated Press called the race Nov. 18 for the seat representing Montgomery County for Democrat Melissa Cerrato. Republican Rep. Todd Stephens conceded late Nov. 17.

Her win means Democrats flipped a net of 12 districts, the precise number they needed to control the House at the start of the 2023-24 session in January.

But there’s uncertainty because of the October death of Rep. Tony DeLuca, D-Allegheny, and because two other Allegheny County Democrats who won new House terms, Reps. Austin Davis and Summer Lee, also were elected as lieutenant governor and to Congress.

Lee’s swearing-in to Congress is set for Jan. 3, the same day the Pennsylvania House starts its new session. Davis and Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro will be inaugurated Jan. 17. Republicans maintained majority control of the state Senate, although their margin dropped by one seat to 28-22.

In another close race in the Philadelphia suburbs, Democrat Mark Moffa conceded in a statement on Facebook late Nov. 16, stepping aside for Republican Joe Hogan to keep what has been a GOP seat.

A Democratic margin of 102-101 drops to 101-99 for Republicans when the three vacancies are counted, at least until special elections are scheduled for early next year.

The House’s chief clerk, Brooke Wheeler, is expected to preside during the Jan. 3 swearing-in until a speaker is elected. The next speaker must schedule the three special elections before or on same day as the May 16 spring primary.

Mike Straub, spokesperson for current House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, said the situation may come into better focus after the two caucuses assemble to elect their own leaders next week.

Straub said he expected “conversations between both leadership groups about what’s a path forward as we hit a very unique swearing-in day.”

A spokesperson for current House Minority Leader Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, declined to comment. McClinton said after the successful election that she expected to become the first Black woman in state history to be elevated to the speakership.

—Mark Scolforo, of The Associated Press 

House Leadership

Both parties in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are sticking with their top leaders as they head into the uncertainty of starting the next session in January with the chamber closely divided.

House Republicans on Nov. 22 named Rep. Bryan Cutler of Lancaster County to be their floor leader, a week after Democrats reelected Rep. Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia to their caucus’ highest leadership position.

Cutler has been speaker while Republicans have led the House with a sizable majority, but Democrats flipped a net of 12 seats during legislative elections earlier this month.

That is barely enough for the majority in the 203-seat House, but one incumbent Democrat died a month before being reelected and two others won their House seats the same day they were also elected to higher offices. Special elections will fill those three vacancies by or on the May 16 spring primary election.

Cutler says he’s not interested in becoming speaker even if the GOP musters enough votes to make it happen. McClinton has said she expects to be speaker.

House Republicans also voted for new faces in other top leadership jobs, making Rep. Tim O’Neal of Washington County their vote-counting whip and Rep. Seth Grove of York County as the Appropriations Committee chairman.

The House is expected to elect a speaker on Jan. 3, the day members are sworn in for the coming term.

—The Associated Press

Inflation Pay Raise

Inflation is gift-wrapping another big salary increase for hundreds of Pennsylvania state lawmakers, judges and top executive branch officials in 2023, including boosting rank-and-file lawmakers and district judges into six-figure territory.

For many of these positions, it’s the biggest increase since the 1990s, when lawmakers passed legislation to give themselves annual salary increases by tying them to inflation rates.

Salaries across the board will rise 7.8%, a figure tied by state law to the year-over-year change in the consumer price index published this month by the U.S. Department of Labor for mid-Atlantic urban areas.

That salary increase is substantially higher—about 50% higher—than what federal data shows for average private sector wages in Pennsylvania during the same time period.

Rank-and-file lawmakers will earn nearly $103,000, or an additional $7,400. The Legislature’s highest paid officers, the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore, will make more than $160,000, up $11,600.

Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro will make almost $230,000, up $16,600 from this year’s salary for governor, and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Debra Todd will make about $252,000, up about $18,000 for the position.

—Marc Levy, The Associated Press