Archive for Pennsylvania
Recent Stories for Pennsylvania
Drink tax is kept off ballot
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Pennsylvania · Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Allegheny County Board of Elections yesterday ruled that both referendum questions on the 10 percent drink tax should not be placed on the November ballot because they are illegal according to county and state law. In a ruling that seems to be a bigger blow to the restaurateurs and bar owners than it is to the county, the three judges temporarily serving as Board of Elections members unanimously declined to certify either ballot initiative. Bar and restaurant owners wanted to decrease the drink tax to 0.5 percent from 10 percent. The county wanted a referendum to offset a loss in drink tax revenues with a property tax increase. The county judges, appointed to replace the regular board members because of their public positions on both measures, cited established case law -- Hempfield School District v. Lancaster County -- to knock down the referendum petition by the group Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation, called FACT. FACT is composed of restaurateurs and bar owners who have opposed the drink tax since it was proposed together with a $2-a-day tax on car rentals to fund mass transit. It submitted 44,598 petition signatures to the county elections office last month in support of a ballot initiative to ask voters whether they want a reduction in the drink tax.
Make it a double: 2 drink tax referenda likely
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Pennsylvania · Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Drink tax foes will submit a petition to the Allegheny County board of elections today, setting the stage for dueling ballot referenda in November on the controversial levy. Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation amassed far more than the required 23,006 signatures to get its measure on the ballot, said the group's attorney, Cris Hoel. The referendum, if approved by county voters, would mandate that the tax on poured alcoholic drinks be reduced from 10 percent to no more than 0.5 percent. County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and his allies on County Council oppose such a measure, saying that reducing or eliminating the drink tax -- which, along with a $2-per-day rental car tax, helps fund the Port Authority -- would require a property tax hike to compensate.
Under Charter, Citizens Take 'initiative'
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Pennsylvania · Source: Lancaster Online
But the arguments for "initiative and referendum" changed his mind. Based on citizen input, Miller, a member of the Lancaster County Government Study Commission, and seven others on the 11-person GSC voted in May to amend the draft charter to not only allow people to force the board of county commissioners to consider an issue — but to take that issue to the electorate. "What I failed to see in the beginning was that the power to require consideration without the power for enactment would prove to be a paper tiger and diminish the real intent of initiative, namely government responsiveness to citizen desires," Miller said. Article VI, on initiative and referendum, includes one of the biggest philosophical changes to county government in the home-rule charter. Under the County Code, the state law that now controls the structure of county government, referendum is only allowed under limited conditions.
Opinion: LTE: Give Independents more opportunities
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Pennsylvania · Source: The Morning Call
Regarding the Nov. 28 op-ed column by G. Terry Madonna and Michael L. Young, ''Reform without change is Pennsylvania's peril'': The reform agenda must include an open and inclusive, non-partisan political process. As more and more voters become Independent (35 to 40 percent of the electorate) we clearly need to restructure the political process to give Pennsylvanians more direct political control over policy making, government, and the culture of political life. We cannot depend on the Democrats or Republicans to reform themselves. They won't! Independents can be the driving force to break up the partisanship of the two major parties and invigorate our democracy.
Sharon home rule transition steps outlined
Category: City Government · State: Pennsylvania · Source: The Sharon Herald
Steps taken for local I&R.
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