The Senate today voted to concur in House amendments to the Education Code, Tax Code and the Welfare Code, but amended the House version of the follow-along Fiscal Code bill to take out the payday lending provisions.
The Senate accepted, by a party-line vote, the House version of the Welfare Code bill that does not contain the Medicaid expansion legislation approved earlier by the Senate. However, Sen. Pat Vance (R-Cumberland), Majority Chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, said she would be sending around a co-sponsor memo shortly to authorize the expansion.
The House has added July 8 to its Calendar as a non-voting session day.
Here are some details on the action today in the Senate.
-- Fiscal Code: Senate Bill 591 (Vulakovich-D-Allegheny) budget-related amendments to the Fiscal Code was amended and reported out of the House Appropriations Committee and was passed by the House. The bill includes provisions related to distributions from the Race Horse Development Fund. The bill returned to the Senate, which amended the bill to take out payday lending language, and voted 49 to 0 to return the bill to the House for a concurrence vote.
-- Tax Code: House Bill 465 MacKenzie (R-Berks) amends the Tax Code was amended with more than a dozen changes, including: address the Delaware loophole, increases the Net Operating Loss Deduction by $1 million, keeps the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax at the same and extends the phase-out by two years, requires up to $5 million may be appropriated to the State Racing Commissions and any funds that exceed $5 million shall be transferred to the PA Race Horse Development Fund, creates a new Innovate in PA program offering $100 million of deferred insurance premiums tax credits to qualified insurance companies to promote technology jobs, provides for a small business exclusion from the state Inheritance Tax. A summary and House Fiscal Note are available. The House amended the bill and returned it to the Senate which concurred in amendments. The bill now goes to the Governor for his action.
-- Welfare Code/Medicaid Expansion: House Bill 1075 (Moul-R-Adams) makes numerous changes to the Welfare Code, including expansion of the Medicaid program was amended to remove the language to expand the Medicaid program and was passed by the House. A summary and House Fiscal Note are available. The bill returned to the Senate and Senate Democrats lost an attempt to suspend the rules to return the Medicaid expansion language to the bill by a vote of 22 to 27. The Senate then concurred in the bill by a vote of 27 to 22. The bill now goes to the Governor for his action. The bill now goes to the Governor for his action.-- Education Code: House Bill 1141 (Saylor-R-York) amends the School Code relating to district budgets, school building projects, educator discipline fees, basic education funding, accountability grants and more was amended in the Senate Appropriations Committee and was passed by the Senate. A summary and House Fiscal Note are available. The House concurred in Senate amendments and the bill is now going to the Governor for his action.
