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This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

City & State — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 15:12:28 -0400

Pennsylvania’s Capital City isn’t exactly a beacon of effective government right now. Not only have state lawmakers in Harrisburg failed to pass a state budget on time for the fifth straight year, but the City of Harrisburg is also facing its own struggles. The state is pressuring the city to repay $2.3 million in grants for a project at Reservoir Park after the city missed multiple deadlines, and the spokesperson for Mayor Wanda Williams is currently on administrative leave amid rumors that an anonymous letter critical of Williams was sent to City Council leaders. On top of all that, the city once again canceled its Fourth of July fireworks at a time when there’s no shortage of fireworks within city government.

Keep reading for more winners and losers!

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One year later, PA’s congressional delegation is still split on the Big Beautiful Bill

Justin Sweitzer — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 16:28:35 -0400

A year after President Donald Trump signed his sweeping domestic policy bill – the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – into law, members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation are still at odds over whether Trump’s signature tax law will do more to help – or hurt – Pennsylvanians.

The megabill made several expiring provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, and delivered on a key campaign promise of Trump’s by creating tax deductions for tips and overtime pay. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act also made significant changes to Medicaid spending and the Affordable Care Act, which critics feared would jeopardize insurance coverage for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanian residents.

With the law now on the books for one calendar year, Democrats and Republicans are pushing different messages about what the legacy of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will look like.

Allies of the president, like U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, said ahead of the law’s one-year anniversary that the bill – which he referred to not by the president’s own moniker but instead as the “Working Families Tax Cuts” – “leverages the tax code to work for Americans, not against them.”

“In its first year, the Working Families Tax Cuts put more money back into the pockets of hardworking Pennsylvania families, made historic investments in our nation’s children, gave a boost to our seniors, and strengthened Main Street businesses for years to come,” Kelly said in a statement.

Citing data from the U.S. Treasury Department, Kelly said 96% of filers who received a tax cut this year earned less than $200,000. He also noted that more than 7.5 million filers claimed the tip deduction, and another 29 million claimed the tax deduction for overtime pay.

“From employers to employees, from children to seniors, the Working Families Tax Cuts are a game-changer for Pennsylvanians,” he added.

Democrats sought to paint the bill in a different light, citing estimates showing more than 300,000 Pennsylvanians would lose health insurance coverage as a result of the bill. Nationwide, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that 10.5 million people would lose access to their Medicaid coverage under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, in a media availability on Wednesday, said the bill slashed taxes for the country’s highest earners at the expense of funding for healthcare and food assistance.

“At its essence, you have the largest tax cuts for billionaires in American history – over $5 trillion’s worth – paid for by the deepest cuts to healthcare and food assistance in American history,” Boyle said. “This bill truly was Robin Hood in reverse. It is robbing from the poor, taking away their health care, taking away their food assistance, in order to give money to the ultra- and mega-wealthy.”

Boyle suggested that the damage from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act “is even worse” than the initial predictions indicated, claiming that 8 million Americans have already lost their health care coverage as a result of that bill and that another 8 million people could lose Medicaid coverage this December. That warning comes on the heels of anticipated premium hikes among insurers in the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace, with the median proposed premium increase for 2027 at 14%, according to KFF, a healthcare research nonprofit.

Boyle was joined by nonprofit leaders and several current Medicaid recipients who voiced their concerns about losing their coverage.

James Luby, a Northeastern Pennsylvania resident who currently works as a stagehand, said that Medicaid helps him manage hypertension and autism, and that losing access to Medicaid coverage would be devastating.

“I don’t work to get Medicaid. I have Medicaid so that I can work. I’ve been everything from a movie producer to a taxi driver … since the pandemic I’ve been working as a stagehand – and I love my job,” Luby said. “If I were to lose Medicaid, I would be devastated, because I’d have no other option.”

Despite the tax law changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Pennsylvanians remain concerned about their personal finances.

According to a June poll from Franklin & Marshall College, 24% of voters listed the economy and finances as the most important problem facing Pennsylvania. Government and politicians came in second at 14%, and another 12% of respondents listed taxes as their chief concern.

Of the poll’s 546 respondents, 47% of those surveyed said they felt “worse off” financially than they did the year before, 40% said they felt “about the same,” and 14% said they felt better off.

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PA hospitals are in critical condition – new legislation can stop private equity from pulling the plug

Monica Taylor — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 15:05:30 -0400

Last year, the health and wellbeing of Delaware County faced a perilous road forward after Prospect Medical Holdings declared bankruptcy, and closed their third and fourth hospitals in Delaware County.

Crozer Healthcare’s demise isn’t just tragic; it’s a warning to other counties – a canary in the coal mine dug by private equity executives to extract profit from our community’s healthcare.

Every single county in our commonwealth should take note of what happened here because of Prospect Medical Holdings’ greed.

Private Equity Stakeholder Project data shows that Pennsylvania has 287 hospital facilities, 13 of which are currently owned by private equity firms. Nine of the 13 are owned by Jeffrey Epstein-linked Apollo Global Management. The number of hospitals owned by private equity firms would be higher – if those firms would stop looting and closing them.

Without commonsense guardrails, private equity executives will continue their siege on nonprofit healthcare assets to satiate the interests of shareholders – and endanger the health of our communities.

However, we have the power to stop them. HB 1460, put forth by state Rep. Lisa Borowski, empowers Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday to block the sale of critical hospital systems to private equity.

HB 1460 passed the state House in June of 2025 with strong bipartisan support – and despite sitting for a year in the state Senate, it has finally passed out of committee in that chamber with broad bipartisan support.

Of course, the bill has its opponents. Some argue that the bill doesn’t go far enough. While this may be the case, we must start somewhere. Protecting our hospitals, our healthcare and our constituents is a logical first step.

Others posit that private equity is being treated as a scapegoat – that failing hospitals are not private equity’s fault. They argue that escalating healthcare costs, inefficiencies and unequal access to care will exist regardless of whether a private equity fund buys a chain of hospitals.

But when executives like Prospect Medical CEO Sam Lee – who made $90 million after Prospect took out a $1.1 billion loan and used the funds to pay other executives and shareholders a $457 million dividend – oppose commonsense guardrails and legislation like HB 1460, it becomes clear that the arsonist is blaming the building for being flammable.

Passing HB 1460 won’t save the four closed hospitals in my home county, but it can protect the hospitals in yours. It may not stop companies like Prospect from destroying patient medical records, or from selling the land right out from under the hospitals they own. But it will help keep your county’s healthcare workers employed. It will help keep your county’s patients cared for. Let’s pass HB 1460 and work towards better oversight, better protections and better care for everyone who calls Pennsylvania home.

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Pennsylvania’s tourism lead says 2026 events have been an astounding success

Harrison Cann — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:18:11 -0400

Anne Ryan, the state’s deputy secretary of the Office of Tourism, has been all over the commonwealth this summer as the Keystone State has hosted numerous marquee events during its semiquincentennial celebrations. Ryan spoke with City & State about Philadelphia’s standout performance as a World Cup host city and her mid-year review for how Pennsylvania has fared as a summer destination for those coming from far and wide.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Philly’s Fan Fest has been widely considered an astounding success and one of the best city-run events among the host cities. What does that say about Philadelphia Soccer 2026 and the work that their team put in?

First and foremost, what we know about Philadelphia is that Philly knows how to host events. We can pull together a Super Bowl parade in a week that has a million attendees, so you’re dealing with a city that knows how to do very large-scale events well. Then, when you zoom in on Philadelphia Soccer 2026 and how it has handled the FIFA Fan Festival … that organization has some of the most connected, sharpest and most experienced leaders in the city. You’re blending expertise, real tenacity and event know-how. It just speaks to the caliber of the organization.

To be a little bit more brass tacks, other host cities didn’t accomplish what Philadelphia Soccer did in raising both public and private funding. Philadelphia Soccer’s ability to run a 39-day Fan Festival – yes, there’s a lot of public funding, but there’s also a lot of private funding. You really have to look at the organizations, their expertise, and their commitment to being the absolute best in a city experience, but to actually execute on that, you have to have funding and resources. They were able to achieve both of those things.

You mentioned that other host cities haven’t been able to keep their Fan Fest open every day throughout the World Cup. Does that add to the uniqueness of the Philadelphia experience?

It is a really unique experience. Gov. Shapiro is very committed to the World Cup in Philadelphia and throughout the entire state, and some of the funding that the governor unlocked for the 2026 events went directly to Philadelphia Soccer, and that funding is being used to help supplement Fan Festival, and to help supplement the three Fan Zones throughout the state. We aren’t here to take credit, but we’re certainly contributing to the success of Fan Fest and to the Fan Zone. I look at Boston and I look at some of the other cities – they just weren’t in a position to fund the Fan Fest to the extent that the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were able to.

If you get a chance to go to Philadelphia’s Fan Fest, definitely stop by the Pennsylvania Pavilion … We’re promoting the elk in the PA Wilds, the Cherry Springs State Park with the international dark skies, Pittsburgh, Lake Erie and the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. That’s something we’re really proud of in this tourism office. We have these massive events in Philly this summer, but our goal is to show these million-plus visitors about the rest of the state and arm them with information.

Pennsylvania hosted the NFL Draft, the PGA Championship, and the World Cup, and will soon welcome the MLB All-Star Game – how are we doing?

When I took this role two years ago, we were talking about how important 2026 was going to be and how this was our moment to really build the Visit PA brand. When I look at what we’ve done over the last six months – the big sporting events, the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the Groundhog Day events in Punxsutawney, the Philadelphia Flower Show and, of course, the NFL Draft – I cannot find a single opportunity that we missed. I feel so proud of how we’ve leveraged every single event with activations.

The fact that Fan Fest has already had more than 400,000 attendees, and we haven’t had our biggest matches yet, is incredible. That has exceeded expectations. Philadelphia Stadium has welcomed over 200,000 attendees … We made the most of it in our domestic advertising. We were advertising east of the Mississippi River – up and down the East Coast – and internationally in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. And if you look at year-over-year June and July flights, our flights from France to Philadelphia International Airport are up 59%. Our flights from the UK are up 25%, and we’re not even hosting England. Our flights from the Netherlands to Philadelphia are up 48%, and we hosted Curaçao. If you just look at the year-over-year increases in flights from countries where we’re hosting their teams, they're directly correlated with our efforts there.

I think we are redefining how a state tourism office comes in and lifts up all of the marketing and communication efforts of all of the organizations. You have Visit Philly doing an incredible job, you have Philadelphia Soccer 2026 doing an incredible job, the City of Philadelphia and the PHL Central Business District – they’re all marketing this.

What have you heard about the diversity of fans at the Fan Fest and where they’re coming from, regardless of who’s playing that day?

This goes back to Philadelphia Soccer. Their No. 1 goal for Fan Fest was to make it accessible in terms of affordability and transit. We’re the only host city in the U.S. with a free 39-day Fan Fest. Other cities have been struggling to continue operating, and we have pushed the message of a 39-day Fan Fest since we determined it. For the last few months, we’ve been aggressively advertising. The Philadelphia Soccer team and their leader, Meg Kane, said that 70% of people who travel for the World Cup don’t have a match ticket; they just want to watch a match among fellow fans and in a big community. They want it to be a communal experience.

The diaspora of people coming to Philadelphia from up and down the East Coast to watch Haiti, Ecuador, Ghana or Côte d’Ivoire – they’re coming to Philadelphia because it’s free, it’s accessible and because we’ve promoted it. We’ve gone to great lengths to make sure the nation knows: if you want to watch a match with a bunch of people and have a good time with the most passionate fans on Earth, come to Philadelphia.

What preliminary tourism revenue and spending numbers are you seeing from the first half of the year?

Our projected economic impact numbers for 2026 overall were $91 billion and 209 million visitors. We don’t have mid-year numbers yet, but I do know the Philadelphia World Cup projections were around 500,000 and we’ve already surpassed that. I can tell you we’re going to beat the World Cup projection … Pittsburgh with the NFL Draft, they blew attendance projections out of the water. I expect the same trend for the World Cup and then, of course, the MLB All-Stars.

I’m also proud of our Visit PA Playmakers. Pennsylvania is a massive state. People are coming to Philadelphia and they can get context on Philadelphia, but how do we introduce them to the rest of the state in a way that’s not just pictures? That’s what Playmakers are. We’ve had the Pittsburgh Dad and the Nittany Lion at events, we’ve had Amish people on our television commercials – we got real Amish people to agree to do it. We have our sports mascots and all of our icons across Pennsylvania. It’s not a gimmick – these are real people.

We have an opportunity to make a lasting first impression on the millions of people attending these events across the state. It was a risk – would these huge organizations like FIFA, the MLB and the NFL allow all of this? They have, and there will be more to come in terms of wrap-up and how everything went later this summer.

Is there civic pride that comes with this job and with hosting events?

It is a big deal to host the World Cup; we’re not just hosting it and doing an OK job – Philadelphia is topping the list and getting all kinds of national attention. Pennsylvanians should be proud of that.

And we’re bringing the World Cup energy to the rest of the state. This isn’t just about Philadelphia in 2026 or Pittsburgh and the NFL Draft. These FIFA Fan Zones are now throughout the state, and so many counties across the state have activated for America250. We brought five free concerts to Erie, Wilkes-Barre, State College, Hershey and Pittsburgh, but I want residents to know: 2026 is for all 67 counties. We’re doing our best to bring the World Cup to everyone and to bring concerts and everyone together. We hope Pennsylvanians feel proud that these international and national major sporting events chose Pennsylvania to host. It’s a big deal.

For Pennsylvania to be hosting these events over the course of three to four months, it’s not normal – no state has ever hosted this caliber of events in such a short time period. I hope Pennsylvanians feel really proud that the place we get to live in and call home is on millions of people’s bucket lists to visit this summer.

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Behind closed doors: The fight to open up the PA Senate ‘Rules Room’

Justin Sweitzer — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 13:38:35 -0400

Smoke-filled rooms once dominated American politics, so much so that the term remains a common metaphor for closed-door doings in a political arena and era long on readily available short-form content and streaming options that have transformed how voters access their elected leaders.

Today, despite the prevalence of content providers running the gamut from PCN to TMZ revealing how the legislative sausage gets made at every level from local school board meetings to sessions of Congress, one of the most politically powerful chambers in the commonwealth remains its least accessible.

The Senate Rules Committee Conference Room, located just steps off the Pennsylvania Senate chamber, is home to regular meetings of the Senate Appropriations and Rules & Executive Nominations committees, where bills big and small get teed up for a final vote in the General Assembly’s upper chamber. That includes the state’s annual budget bills, which often get amended during the Appropriations Committee's final, negotiated budget meetings, as well as measures to amend the state constitution.

Unlike committee meetings in the state House of Representatives – which records and livestreams all its committee meetings for the public to view – committee meetings held in the Senate Rules Committee Conference Room are not livestreamed or recorded, and are often “off the floor” meetings announced on the Senate floor just minutes before they’re set to take place.

Erica Clayton Wright, a spokesperson for Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, told City & State in an email that the Rules Room, by nature of being in the state Capitol, is a nationally recognized historic landmark that is used to preview bills and nominations before they get votes from the entirety of the state Senate.

“Pennsylvania’s Capitol Building, including the Senate Chamber and Senate Rules Room, (is a) National Historic Landmark. The Senate Rules Room is used to provide review of legislation and nominations before (they go) to the floor for a vote by the Senate,” Clayton Wright said in a statement. “It is also a historic and functioning meeting room that meets all safety and building code standards and complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.”

Still, some lawmakers and advocates say the regular use of the Senate Rules Committee Conference Room raises transparency concerns due to its lack of livestreaming and its small size, which often forces those who do want to attend meetings in the room to stand shoulder to shoulder.

State Sen. Lindsey Williams has led efforts to reform Senate rules. Photo credit: State Sen. Lindsey Williams' Office

“I have a lot of concerns with the frequency with which we use the Rules Room, and that it doesn't have the capability to livestream, so people can't watch it – compounded by the fact that the room is so small, so you actually can't get a ton of people in,” Democratic state Sen. Lindsey Williams told City & State in an interview.

Other Capitol stakeholders have experienced that firsthand. Carol Kuniholm, the chair of Fair Districts PA and Fix Harrisburg, a nonprofit that has advocated for redistricting reform measures at the state Capitol, recalled an instance in which a bill her organization was monitoring was being voted on in an off-the-floor meeting.

Kuniholm and other Fair Districts members were told by a legislator that a bill they supported would receive a vote at an off-the-floor committee meeting. She said that by the time they moved from the Senate gallery down to the Rules Room, that room was nearly full. “The room was already packed with reporters and other legislators … I wedged in there, but it was incredibly intimidating and uncomfortable, and most of the folks that we had there, who were very concerned about this bill, were not able to get entrance,” Kuniholm recalled.

“I do remember somehow getting into that room and standing against the wall and looking around and thinking, ‘This is really intentional – cut out any public view of what’s happening.’ There were some reporters, there were other legislators – there was no room for anybody,” she added. “It was very crowded and very uncomfortable.”

Over the course of the 2025-26 legislative session, more than 60 off-the-floor committee meetings have been held in the Senate Rules Committee Conference Room – none of them livestreamed. Some of the major pieces of legislation to move through the room this session include last year’s $50.1 billion state budget, which was amended into a bill originally designed to exempt reparations for Holocaust victims from the state’s Personal Income Tax. This year, bills that have advanced through off-the-floor meetings held in the Rules Room include legislation creating a bell-to-bell school cellphone ban, bills seeking to protect children from AI tools, and legislative efforts to combat human trafficking, among others.

Over the last several legislative sessions, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have introduced measures that would require all committee meetings held in the General Assembly to be livestreamed and recorded.

Republican state Sen. Pat Stefano has introduced a bill multiple sessions in a row that would require both the House and the Senate to record committee meetings and hearings and publish them on the General Assembly’s website. His bill would also require meetings to be livestreamed “when technically possible.”

Located in the Pennsylvania Capitol, the Senate chamber is a national historic landmark. Photo credit: Walter Bibikow/Getty Images

“As public servants, we have a fundamental responsibility to ensure that the constituents who have elected us have clear insight into how we are representing their interests,” Stefano wrote in a co-sponsorship memo circulated to colleagues prior to the start of the most recent session. “A crucial part of this is providing transparency into the decision-making process, especially during meetings where we vote on legislation that directly affects their lives.”

This session, both Democrats and Republicans have signed on to Stefano’s bill as co-sponsors, though the bill has not advanced out of the Senate State Government Committee. Stefano introduced the same bill during the previous legislative session, where the measure also failed to receive a committee vote.

Williams and her Democratic colleague, state Sen. Katie Muth, have sought to overhaul the Senate’s operating rules with a legislative rules reform package they say would promote more bipartisanship, improve the legislature’s productivity and increase transparency.

One of the reforms included in that package is a rule change requiring all Senate committee meetings to be livestreamed, with recordings retained for 10 years.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, off-the-floor meetings typically held in the Senate Rules Committee Conference Room were instead held on the Senate floor, where they were livestreamed and accessible to the public. However, once the pandemic ended, the Senate reverted to holding off-the-floor meetings in the Rules Room, with no recordings or livestreams available.

Williams said that, even if the Senate is unable to stream meetings in the Senate Rules Committee Conference Room due to logistical or technical constraints, the chamber could hold off-the-floor meetings on the Senate floor, or in another room with streaming capabilities, like the Senate did with an off-the-floor meeting of the Senate Education Committee on April 20th, which was livestreamed.

“There's no reason why we can't have an off-the-floor Approps meeting on the floor of the Senate with the livestream,” Williams said. “They could have it in a different room that has streaming capabilities – but they choose not to.”

The Rules Room is home to meetings of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Senate Rules & Executive Nominations Committee. Photo credit: Justin Sweitzer

Clayton Wright added that conversations about modernizing the room continue, including making meetings in the room accessible via livestream.

“Conversations are taking place related to the modernization of the room to accommodate livestream meetings and an important part of those conversations is maintaining the historic integrity of the room to meet preservation standards,” she said.

Melissa Melewsky, who serves as media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, said that the historic nature of the Capitol may present difficulties when it comes to modernizing the room.

“There may be limitations on what can be done physically to such a historic location. I know that's been an issue in other places inside the Capitol building,” Melewsky said. “I think that means it needs to be handled carefully and within the confines of whatever rules apply to modifying a historic structure – but it doesn’t mean that it can't happen. It may require more time, more money, more effort. The question becomes, is that something the Senate wants to pursue? Is it worth it to them? Is that a price that they believe we should shoulder as a society?”

To Williams, lawmakers in the General Assembly should do everything they can to make government meetings and proceedings as accessible as possible, including examining how access to the Rules Room – and what happens inside it – can be improved.

“It sends a bad message, and at a time when trust in public officials is at an all-time low for all levels of government. We should be doing everything we can to rebuild that,” Williams said. “That means having things public, having proper notice – having amendments sunshined more than an hour before meetings so that people can comment on them.”

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The room where it happened: Congressmembers celebrate America250 in Philly’s Congress Hall

Harrison Cann — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:51:17 -0400

On the eve of the nation’s semiquincentennial, 37 members of Congress celebrated the nation’s founding in the rooms where it happened.

Philadelphia U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle had long sought to take Congress on a field trip back to Independence Hall to commemorate his hometown’s role in the nation’s founding. And on Thursday, his two-year effort to bring Congress back to where it met from 1790 to 1800 culminated in a history lesson rather than a formal joint session of Congress.

While July 4 gets most of the fanfare, Boyle said July 2 deserves more attention as the day the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain in 1776.

“I said moments ago, ‘Welcome,’ but I could have said ‘Welcome back.’” Boyle said Thursday, noting the lengthy effort to get the event in “literally the room where it all began … It was 250 years ago on this day, July 2, that our predecessors of Congress voted for independence and voted to create the United States of America.”

And while it wasn’t a formal congressional meeting, it was no easy feat getting lawmakers together outside the Capitol and assembled at one of the country’s most historic sites. Boyle had introduced legislation last February to authorize a joint session of Congress, a bill that received bipartisan support from Alabama U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt and others serving on the America250 semiquincentennial commission – but the resolution never advanced, leaving the event to go on as an unofficial celebration.

“The promise of this country had to be fought for by generations of Americans who refused to accept that liberty and equality belong only to some. That struggle is not separable from the American story,” Boyle added. “What makes us exceptional is that for 250 years, Americans have kept fighting to bring this nation ever-closer to its founding ideals … It is my solemn wish that we, members of Congress, rededicate ourselves to the great work of this country and the noble purpose of our independence.”

Lawmakers, including fellow commonwealth representatives Madeleine Dean, Dwight Evans, Chrissy Houlahan, Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie, Mary Gay Scanlon and Glenn “GT” Thompson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Gov. Josh Shapiro and several other members of the semiquincentennial commission, met inside Congress Hall Thursday afternoon for the historical ceremony.

“The origins of our republic are traced back to Pennsylvania. The pursuit of freedom began right here in Philadelphia,” Thompson, who chaired the event, said. “It is a profound honor to gather here today with other members of the Pennsylvania delegation and representatives from across the country in the great hope of democracy.”

Thompson told City & State he was “thrilled” to preside over the event and be where the founders debated and signed the Declaration of Independence.

“It’s not perfect; it’s perfecting,” Thompson said of the American experiment. “But at the core and the center, we should be proud to be Americans.”

Several members delivered remarks before having a ceremonial signing to commemorate the semiquincentennial congressional event. The last time members of Congress met at Independence Hall in modern times was 50 years ago, in 1987, when they commemorated the 200th anniversary of the “Great Compromise” – the agreement that established the legislative branch as having two chambers.

Finding compromise – a rare occurrence in Washington, D.C., these days – was one of the driving forces behind Boyle’s efforts to bring Congress back to Philly.

“(That’s) why I wanted to bring lawmakers and my colleagues in Congress back to where it all began 250 years ago, because we do live in very partisan times,” Boyle told City & State, paraphrasing President Gerald Ford’s remarks during the bicentennial 50 years ago. “The fact that we can openly and honestly ask ourselves this question and grapple with that worry (about our nation’s future) is proof that these institutions have held that we are a free and open society that can celebrate its glorious past.”

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Dead on arrival: How PA coroners stonewall records requests and flout the law

Jonah Walters — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 18:01:54 -0400

Jonah Walters, University of California, Los Angeles

Independent journalist Derek Sherwood submitted a records request in Centre County, Pennsylvania, in January 2026. He requested an autopsy report related to a 1987 cold case that he was researching for a book project. After Coroner Scott Sayers denied the request, Sherwood successfully appealed to the Office of Open Records, or OOR, a state agency responsible for adjudicating Right-To-Know Law disputes.

But Sayers still refused to release the report.

On May 14, the day before he was legally required to comply with the OOR’s decision, Sayers obtained a temporary court injunction that shielded the autopsy report from release.

Around the same time, PennLive reporter Jenna Wise requested three autopsy reports related to a 2025 crime spree from Susquehanna County Coroner Jessica Chiaramonte. Like Sayers, Chiaramonte also denied the request and then filed motions with the Court of Common Pleas to seal the reports.

And when I contacted Clearfield County Coroner Kim Shaffer-Snyder in May to request autopsy reports for three men who died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, I was quoted US$2,100 for a short stack of printed pages.

These experiences reflect a wider pattern. In counties across Pennsylvania, coroners routinely refuse to make autopsy reports and other records available to members of the public.

Coroners’ reasons for this are inconsistent and often unclear. Sometimes they say that releasing autopsy reports would jeopardize ongoing law enforcement activities. Sometimes they cite medical privacy standards that do not apply to autopsy reports. And sometimes they don’t provide any reasoning at all.

When coroners do agree to release their records, they charge as much as $700 per case. These fees place autopsy reports out of reach for most requesters, including journalists and researchers like me.

I’m a postdoctoral fellow studying the impacts of mass incarceration on medicine and public health. I’m also a freelance reporter who uses public records to understand what goes on behind the walls of prisons and jails.

In 2022 I partnered with colleague Terence Keel, a professor of human biology and society, to systematically request autopsy reports related to hundreds of deaths in prisons and jails across Pennsylvania.

We submitted requests in over three dozen counties. Then we waited. And waited.

Our plan was to conduct a rigorous statewide study of deaths in custody. Instead, we discovered that autopsy reports are not nearly as public in practice as Pennsylvania law requires.

What PA state law requires

The Pennsylvania County Code provides two pathways through which members of the public can obtain autopsy reports and other coroners records.

First, a requester can obtain them directly from the coroner through the payment of statutory fees. This is the only option available if a requester wants an autopsy report that was produced during the current calendar year.

In most places, however, these fees do not apply to older reports. In all counties with fewer than 500,000 residents, the law requires coroners to deposit the past year’s records with the county prothonotary at the beginning of each new year. The prothonotary is an independent elected official who serves as a designated record-keeper, among other duties.

Once in the prothonotary’s custody, all coroners records are to be made available “for the inspection of interested members of the public” – no fees required. This is the second way a requester can obtain an autopsy report in Pennsylvania.

But the state’s largest jurisdictions, including Philadelphia collar counties such as Bucks, Montgomery and Delaware, are exempt from this requirement. Requesters in those counties must pay the statutory fees no matter how old the requested autopsy report may be.

Due to carve-outs like this, autopsy reports in the counties with the most jail deaths are least accessible to public review.

Philadelphia, Allegheny and Delaware counties

Philadelphia County, Delaware County, which is just outside Philadelphia, and Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, are the only jurisdictions in Pennsylvania to have a chief medical examiner. Unlike a coroner, who is typically elected by the people, a medical examiner is appointed by the county executive or health commissioner.

In a landmark 2023 case brought by journalist Brittany Hailer, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office was subject to the same public release requirements as coroners elsewhere in the state.

Hailer had requested the autopsy report for Daniel Pastorek, a 63-year-old man who died in Allegheny County Jail in 2020 without leaving behind a documented next of kin. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office denied Hailer’s request on the basis that she was not related to Pastorek, and their policy was to release autopsy reports only to next of kin. But the Commonwealth Court ruled that Hailer was entitled to pay the fees and receive Pastorek’s autopsy report, regardless of her identity.

When Hailer finally obtained the report, she found that the medical examiners never performed a full autopsy. They merely viewed Pastorek’s body, then declared that he died of natural causes.

But the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office is not subject to this ruling. Philadelphia, as the state’s largest county by population, is carved out of the section of the Pennsylvania County Code known as the Coroner’s Act.

The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office releases autopsy reports only to next of kin or in response to a subpoena.

James Garrow, communications director for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, which oversees the Medical Examiner, described this to me in a June 2026 email as “a policy decision.”

The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office has made no changes to its policies in light of Hailer v. Allegheny County, Garrow added, citing the Coroner’s Act carve-out and the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter of 1951, which eliminated the office of the coroner.

High fees, but ‘no discretion’ – in theory

Pennsylvania law establishes high fees for coroners’ records – $500 per autopsy report, plus an additional $100 each for toxicology and coroner–investigator reports.

By comparison, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner charges a total of $32 for a comprehensive report that includes all three.

But the hefty price tag in Pennsylvania comes with an unambiguous guarantee.

In a 2012 decision called Hearst Television Inc. v. Norris, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that if a requester pays the fee, the coroner must provide the requested record. The coroner has “no discretion” in such cases, the court ruled.

Yet when Keel and I tried to obtain autopsy reports in 2022, coroners in 21 counties failed to respond to our requests at all. This is despite the fact that Pennsylvania’s Right-To-Know Law requires county officials to acknowledge receipt of all requests within five business days.

Another three coroners acknowledged receipt of our requests but stopped responding to us when we tried to make arrangements to view or collect the reports.

And coroners in 10 counties, including Beaver, Centre, Chester, Dauphin, Indiana and York, denied our requests outright.

We appealed to the Office of Open Records, which consistently ruled in our favor and characterized one coroner’s legal arguments as “frivolous.”

Defying the public deposit requirement

The Coroner’s Act stipulates that in counties with fewer than 500,000 residents, the coroner must deposit “all official records and papers for the preceding year in the office of the prothonotary” for “the inspection of interested members of the public.”

But of the 41 counties we contacted in 2022, only in three was the prothonotary or the county open records officer actually in possession of autopsy reports and able to release them to us.

Some coroners seemed to be unaware of their duty to deposit their records with the prothonotary, telling us they had never done so. Other coroners told us that they had entered into agreements with their local prothonotaries about retaining custody of their records. Such agreements have no clear statutory basis under the County Code.

Still other coroners, however, tried to use the gap between the law and their offices’ practices to stymie our requests.

Sayers, for example, claimed that his office’s autopsy reports were all in the custody of the prothonotary. He suggested we use Webia – Centre County’s online records retrieval system – to locate them.

Webia is a pay-to-use database. It requires a payment simply to set up an account, and it automatically collects a fee for each search a user performs. After a few days of costly and tedious searching, we concluded that Sayers had misled us.

The Office of Open Records agreed.

“There is no evidence that the requested autopsy and toxicology reports were ever deposited with the County Prothonotary,” the appeals officer wrote. “The practical effect is that any requester … is left to obtain them, at great cost,” by paying the statutory fees, he added.

A similar story unfolded in Dauphin County. Coroner Graham Hetrick denied our request and told us to look for autopsy reports at the prothonotary’s office, despite never having deposited them there.

After the OOR accused him of acting “in violation of the public interest,” Hetrick finally released the autopsy reports we requested.

Sayers, however, appealed the OOR’s determination to the Centre County Court of Common Pleas. We didn’t have the resources to fight the case, and the court ruled in Sayers’ favor.

The judge’s 95-word opinion did not address any of the matters raised in the OOR’s 11-page final determination, including the appeals officer’s conclusion that “the County, based upon the actions of its Coroner, may have acted in bad faith.”

I contacted Hetrick and Sayers last year to ask for their responses to the OOR’s criticisms. Neither responded. I reached out to Sayers in June 2026 with a more detailed list of questions, but again he did not respond.

Decisions by the Office of Open Records can be appealed to the local Court of Common Pleas, then further appealed to the Commonwealth Court, which hears cases in the Pennsylvania Judicial Center. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Only 3 of 41 counties readily provided reports

Of the 41 counties we contacted, only Lancaster, Lebanon and Lehigh counties released the autopsy reports we requested without attempting to charge us the statutory fees or requiring us to appeal the matter to the OOR.

In two of those counties – Lancaster and Lehigh – previous court decisions explicitly ordered the coroners to deposit autopsy reports with the prothonotary.

During the 2023-24 legislative session, the Pennsylvania State Coroners’ Association worked with state representative Carol Hill-Evans (D-York) to introduce a bill that would have eliminated the public deposit requirement entirely. Michael Kriner, a registered consultant for the PSCA, confirmed the association’s involvement in an email to me last year.

The proposal never made it out of committee.

In counties with fewer than 500,000 residents – that’s currently 60 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties – the coroner is still required to deposit all autopsy reports and other records for the preceding year with the prothonotary.

That’s the law, whether coroners follow it or not.

The Conversation U.S. reached out to the Pennsylvania State Coroners’ Association to ask why coroners across the state are withholding autopsy reports and failing to deposit their records with the prothonotary. The Conversation U.S. also asked for clarification on the association’s position regarding the release of autopsy reports in exchange for the payment of fees.

The PSCA did not respond.

A ‘united front effort’ to prevent release

In February 2023, after more than six months of fighting for autopsy reports in numerous Pennsylvania counties, Keel and I obtained a batch of emails through a Right-To-Know Law request that shed light on what was happening behind the scenes.

Within days of receiving our request for autopsy reports in June 2022, Sayers contacted the Pennsylvania State Coroners’ Association to ask for guidance.

“Can you find out if any other coroners received a request like this?” Sayers wrote in an email to Scott Grim, a former Lehigh County coroner who was then the PSCA’s executive director.

A few days later, Susan Shanaman, then an attorney for the PSCA, sent an email to a list of numerous recipients, including dozens of sitting coroners. She suggested that coroners take the maximum extension allowed by law before responding to our requests, since they contained “unique issues … such as the requests seem to be all related to police-involved shootings and deaths in prison.”

Later, in another email, Shanaman suggested “that the requests be denied.”

In yet another email, Shanaman wrote, “I did a little more digging.” She attached a magazine article describing Keel’s research about jail deaths in Los Angeles. “A legacy of confronting injustice,” read the headline. This material, wrote Shanaman, “speaks of the goal to find racism in death investigations.”

A few months later, Chester County Coroner Sophia Garcia-Jackson sent an email to the same list. “If any other counties are dealing with the right to know UCLA Terrence Keel appeal with the Office of Open records, can you please reach out to me directly,” Garcia-Jackson wrote.

“My Solicitor and I would like to discuss a united front effort to prevent these records from being released,” she added.

Garcia-Jackson’s “united front effort” did not succeed.

In December 2023, the Commonwealth Court ruled in Terence Keel v. Chester County Office of the Coroner that Garcia-Jackson had no legal basis upon which to withhold the autopsy reports we requested.

We won.

The OOR now cites the case, alongside Hailer v. Allegheny County, when it orders coroners to turn over autopsy reports.

Despite this victory in court, however, the records we requested remained inaccessible to us in practice. The ruling affirmed the public character of autopsy reports, but it did not comment on the coroner’s failure to deposit them with the prothonotary.

Our only option was to obtain the records directly from Garcia-Jackson’s office. In June 2024, she informed us through an attorney that her office would charge the full statutory fee for each report, plus an additional duplication fee.

At least 14 people died in the custody of Chester County between 2008 and 2021. Autopsies were performed on 12 of them. If we want to study those cases, we will have to pay the coroner $7,520.

That total includes only autopsy and toxicology reports. Getting coroner-investigator reports could cost another $1,200 or more.

I contacted Garcia-Jackson, Grim and Shanaman in March 2025 to ask for their comments on the contents of their emails. None responded.

I also reached out to PSCA president and Washington County coroner Tim Warco to ask whether the PSCA helped to coordinate a statewide effort to prevent the release of autopsy reports to Keel and me.

He didn’t respond either.

Breaking the law – and public trust

In Pennsylvania, the public’s right to review autopsy reports is protected by state law. Yet many coroners do not welcome public oversight.

The autopsy report Sherwood requested in Centre County remains temporarily sealed. The court will hold a hearing at a later date to determine whether this seal can be permanent.

The court in Susquehanna County ruled in Wise’s favor. She obtained the three autopsy reports in April and has since put them to use in a major investigation published on PennLive.

After Shaffer-Snyder quoted me $2,100 in response to my query about the three men who died in ICE custody, I asked whether the relevant autopsy reports had been deposited with the prothonotary, as required by law. She did not answer the question.

Instead, Shaffer-Snyder told me I could travel from California to her office in Clearfield County to view the reports in person. But I would not be allowed to duplicate them in a manner consistent with news reporting or academic research.

“There will be no electronic devices permitted to be present while the files are being reviewed,” she wrote in an email, without providing an explanation or legal justification.

When coroners attempt to shield autopsy reports from scrutiny, they’re not just violating the public trust. Often, they’re also breaking the law.

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Philly’s new Tree Coalition is leading the street tree-planting movement – and cooling neighborhoods in the process

Harrison Cann — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:22:05 -0400

For the sake of both the dogs and the volunteers walking them at Philadelphia’s Animal Care and Control Team’s headquarters in the city’s Hunting Park section, Jesse Familetti knew something had to be done about the burning-hot concrete expanses surrounding the facility. And she knew just where to go for a solution: a tree-planting program run by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

Familetti, ACCT’s director of strategic programs and initiatives, already knew she was barking up the right tree: PHS had previously planted a tree outside of her own Northeast Philadelphia home.

“Our tree is now huge – we've probably only had it for about five years – and the difference that it made in the cooling inside our house is really amazing,” Familetti told City & State. “We actually had neighbors coming up to us and asking us about it because there's so many people who, unfortunately, don't know about the program.”

The term “urban forest” may sound like an oxymoron, but it’s not. For cities like Philadelphia, these sylvan environments are as existentially important as the Amazon - providing oxygen, removing carbon dioxide and, just as importantly, cooling streets, buildings and humans with their canopies.

In Philadelphia, according to data from the U.S. Forest Service, the city's parklands constitute 9.3 percent of the total land area; harbor an estimated 1.1 million trees, providing a 64-percent canopy cover; and account for 38.8 percent of carbon storage and 34.8 percent of air-pollution removal thanks to the city's urban forest.

Tree Tenders is run by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and plants 2,000 trees annually. Photo credit: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

But as shown by one of the city's newest organizations speaking for the trees, more can and needs to be done. The Philly Tree Coalition, formally launched on Arbor Day on April 24, is just beginning to grow and tackle its core mission: increasing Philadelphia’s tree canopy to 30% and thus preventing an estimated 400 heat-related deaths per year.

In 2023, the city released its first-ever strategic plan for its urban forest, known as the Philly Tree Plan. The 10-year roadmap included several partner organizations and recommendations related to tree planting, maintenance and preservation, all in an effort to grow the city’s tree canopy equitably – and boost the environmental and economic benefits that come with the shade.

“Trees basically make our neighborhoods livable,” Erica Smith Fichman, the city’s community forestry manager and leader of the TreePhilly program, told City & State. “The presence or absence of trees is correlated with high heat, with high asthma, with poverty, and (with) lots of other public health concerns. Trees are basically at the intersection of a lot of equity conversations.”

At the helm of the new Philly Tree Coalition is Kiasha Huling, who brings years of experience in social work. Huling told City & State she views the efforts as a “public health intervention.”

“Seniors talk about their concerns about how brutal the heat is, and how (in the past) they used to be able to just close the blinds in their airtight homes, not turn on any appliances on a hot day, and just kind of take it easy,” Huling said. “They were appearing in the emergency room with heat stroke because of the ‘heat island effect.’”

Spring Garden Tree Tenders plant a tree along a Philadelphia Street. Photo credit: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

That is a phenomenon occurring when “structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun's heat more than natural landscapes such as forests and water bodies,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which goes on to explain: “Urban areas, where these structures are highly concentrated and greenery is limited, become ‘islands’ of higher temperatures relative to outlying areas.”

The heat island effect is more often found in “environmentally disinvested neighborhoods,” Huling added, making the equitable public health approach that much more vital.

These neighborhoods, many of which are lower-income, industrialized, and densely built, particularly in North, South, and Southwest Philly, have lacked the investment and the open sidewalk or lot space that lend themselves to tree planting.

“A lot of times trees are framed as a ‘nice to have’ (or) as a beautification amenity, but (we’re) really thinking about trees as an investment in people,” Huling continued. “If you’re investing in trees, you’re investing in the quality of a neighborhood, and the quality of a neighborhood dictates the individuals in those neighborhoods’ ability to thrive.”

Xiaojiang Li, a University of Pennsylvania professor who developed the Treepedia Project to map and quantify streetscapes in cities, said that trees affect how humans experience air temperature in more ways than one.

“We usually use air temperature to quantify the heat, but air temperature is not enough – the humidity, the wind speed and the shade all impact how humans feel,” Xiaojiang told City & State. “Planting a tree can reduce the human-perceived temperature by about 20 degrees or more.”

His research backs up the city’s own data.

Smith Fichman said neighborhoods that lack street and yard trees – some areas have as little as 2% tree canopy – can be up to 22 degrees hotter than ones with an adequate tree canopy: “That is the difference between life and death for some people,” she added.

Coalition coalescence

The Philly Tree Coalition, which includes more than half a dozen community groups and organizations focused on tree planting and care, grew out of the Philly Tree Plan established in 2023 by the city and organizations like TreePhilly, which is supported by the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Parks & Recreation and the nonprofit Fairmount Park Conservancy.

Previously, the city’s Tree Plan – and tree plantings – were carried out by community organizations, including the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. PHS, among others, led the efforts to secure major investments in Philadelphia’s urban forest, working with tree-tending groups to plant and maintain street trees alongside residents who sign up for tree planting.

Now, under the leadership of Huling and the Philly Tree Coalition – housed within the Public Health Management Corporation – the community-led implementation of the Philly Tree Plan has branched out.

“In the past, there were amazing projects happening – at universities, through the Water Department, through PHS and Parks and Recreation – and collectively, they are for the greater good of increased canopy and greening in our city,” Huling told City & State. “What we’re doing now is bringing all of those entities together … to really amplify and lend capacity to each of those projects (and) ensure that they're done in a smart and sustainable way.”

Huling said the coalition will ensure there’s equitable distribution of resources and planting and greening opportunities, with the overall “end goal to demonstrably increase our canopy.” Through the new structure, PHMC will facilitate collaboration among partner organizations and administer the community-based Tree Forward subgrant initiative.

Local groups hope to give Philadelphia a new moniker: “The City of Arborly Love.” Photo credit: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

The Tree Forward grant, she said, will directly fund grassroots engagement efforts, as well as costs related to tree maintenance, preservation and removal. For 2026, with awards ranging from $15,000 to $40,000, PHMC distributed nearly $300,000 to 10 organizations through Tree Forward.

Few know the roots of TreePhilly like Ann Cohen, a Roxborough resident who’s been volunteering at tree giveaways and events for more than two decades.

“People are delighted (to get trees for their street). They want to tell you about their trees, they want to tell you how they’re succeeding and, if it’s their first tree, they can’t believe how big they are and how beautiful they are,” Cohen told City & State. Noting how her own trees help with shade and stormwater management around her home, she added: “What the city’s doing now, which makes a tremendous amount of sense, is, they're targeting areas where there is not a lot of tree cover – that's where we do the tree giveaways.”

One of those partners is Matt Rader, president of PHS – which, in addition to producing the internationally recognized Philadelphia Flower Show, runs Tree Tenders, a program that supports 140 local tree-tender groups in and around Philadelphia, operates in 110 neighborhoods and plants roughly 2,000 trees annually.

“Our model is to provide all the support and encouragement and empowerment that somebody needs to make something green happen in their neighborhood,” Rader told City & State. Interested tree tenders must take a nine-hour course to learn about tree biology, advocacy and care; once shown the ropes, the tenders form local groups to promote and implement the planting and continuing care of street trees for interested residents.

The absence of trees can result in high heat levels, particularly in urban environments. Photo credit: Craig Pearce

Forgotten infrastructure

Proponents of the tree-plan push are pitching trees not as an amenity, but as a necessity.

Both environmental and economic outcomes, they argue, make street trees among the most cost-effective forms of infrastructure for creating and sustaining healthy communities.

Data from the U.S. Department of Energy shows that properly placed trees around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by about 30% – and having three trees can reduce a household's energy bills by $100 to $250 per year. Tree plantings in urban areas have also been shown to have a significant impact on reducing crime, increasing property values and providing long-term health benefits to the surrounding community.

The Philly Tree Plan got off the ground with the help of a $12 million USDA Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry grant awarded in 2024 through President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which included a dedicated five-year climate investment for cities. The Trump administration briefly halted federal funding last year before unfreezing it, allowing the coalition to hire Huling and two full-time staff members who will operate through PHMC.

Through the Tree Plan, the coalition staff will oversee fundraising and coordinate the planting and upkeep of thousands of trees.

“The planting and care … of urban trees is a really transformational public health move for every city and town in Pennsylvania, and it’s not currently treated as an opportunity for funding,” he added. “And where funding happens, it’s often for planting but not care – yet the care is critical to keep them healthy. It’s also critical because that supports jobs and opportunities for tree-care contractors.”

There is widespread agreement among advocates that to ensure trees don’t become a liability or financial burden for the homeowner, the focus must go beyond planting to maintaining existing and new trees.

“It’s one thing to plant a tree. What do neighborhoods need to be able to maintain that tree and to maintain existing trees?” Huling asked. “If we plant a tree today, it will have some health benefits. But if we can hold onto a tree that we already have, we’re already benefiting from it, and so (we’re) thinking about our preservation of our current canopy as we also plan for the future and the increase in our canopy.”

If you’re investing in trees, you’re investing in the quality of a neighborhood.

– Kiasha Huling

“There should be an ongoing annual investment to treat tree canopy as a core municipal service, and instead it’s often treated as ‘We’ll do a planting project here or there’ – and that’s not what you need,” Rader said. He added that there’s also an economic incentive to funding local jobs: “If you have stable investment in tree maintenance in Philadelphia and municipalities commonwealth-wide, you have a huge opportunity to build a local tree care industry.”

But, Rader emphasized, “the goal would never be to move all of this into city government.” While the public role is critical in terms of resources, policy priority and services around care and maintenance of trees, Rader added: “You want to keep the character of tree-tending programs like that deeply embedded in the community, so that there’s ownership for the care of the trees.”

Huling and Smith Flichman agreed, noting that nonprofits and private partners can be more flexible than a municipal entity in responding to new opportunities.

That’s because of the grassroots nature of the coalition, whose governance structure centers a community-based advisory committee, “with voting power on how money is spent … and what the priorities are for coalition recommendations,” Smith Flichman affirmed. “We’ve had decades and decades of amazing volunteer programs, but they haven’t translated into an advocacy effort.” Now, he adds, that is changing.

Community connection

Much like the tree plantings that have taken place over the years, tree tenders and volunteers lead both on-the-ground and in-the-ground efforts from around the city.

The ability for these hyperlocal groups to meet with residents, assess neighborhood needs, and plant and maintain trees where needed is the root system for the coalition’s effort.

Tree Tenders plant street trees in Philadelphia on April 18, 2026. Photo credit: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

The coalition is actively seeking “Priority Area Leaders” to represent neighborhoods, a role that comes with a $1,200 annual stipend over three years and the responsibility for a tree plan progress report set to be published in the fall.

The application window for community-based organizations to submit projects opens on July 6 and runs through Aug. 24. Notification of awards will take place in October, setting the stage for newly organized projects to begin in 2027 to support the long-term sustainability of the city’s urban forest.

“Our largest opportunity to increase our tree canopy is through street trees – and street trees exist on our blocks, and they have to be permitted by the homeowner,” Huling said. So individual Philadelphians, like my neighbors to my left and right, are also critical participants in the successful increase of tree canopy.”

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City & State’s 2026-27 Pennsylvania state budget tracker

Justin Sweitzer — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:47:00 -0400

After last year’s budget impasse stretched more than 130 days behind schedule, Pennsylvania lawmakers are hopeful they can avoid a similar delay this year. Gov. Josh Shapiro presented lawmakers with a $53.3 billion spending plan in February, though state officials were unable to reach – and pass – an agreement by the state’s June 30 budget deadline.

City & State has put together a budget tracker for the 2026-27 fiscal year, offering an up-to-date look at the state budget’s progress through the legislative process.

June 30, 2026: Lawmakers miss June 30 deadline; GOP leaders expect to pass budget ‘in the days following July 4th’

June 30 marks the end of the state’s fiscal year, and Pennsylvania officials concluded the day without advancing a finalized budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year. And while the state will once again miss its June 30 budget deadline, GOP leaders in the state Senate expressed optimism that a budget package will be advanced sooner rather than later.

In a joint statement, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Scott Martin said they expect a budget agreement to advance after the Fourth of July.

“This week, we have received the necessary clarity on many outstanding issues which were delaying completion of this year’s budget,” the Senate leadership team said in a statement. “Presently, we believe we are well on our way to effectuating a full budget agreement in the days following July 4th. At the conclusion of session today, the Senate will recess to the call of the President Pro Tempore and will reconvene once final budgetary language is ready to advance.”

Pittman, in remarks on the Senate floor, underscored his confidence that negotiations are in a good place.

“I actually think we’re in a very good position based on the conversations and the understandings that I’ve had over the last several hours,” he said, adding that the divided nature of the General Assembly will require compromise. “There will be difficult choices, there will be pain, there will be discomfort at all levels – but we will meet in the middle. We will conclude this process, I believe, in the next several days with a responsible product.”

In a press conference following Tuesday’s legislative session, House and Senate Democrats voiced frustration that the chamber recessed without passing a state budget.

On X, the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Caucus accused Republicans of slow-walking a state budget. “Senate Republicans are purposely dragging their feet by ending session early and going home until next week,” the caucus said in a post. “Let’s get to work.”

All 23 Senate Democrats voted to stay in Harrisburg to pass a budget.

Senate Republicans are purposely dragging their feet by ending session early and going home until next week.

Let’s get to work. pic.twitter.com/1qRjeX29h0
— PA Senate Democratic Caucus (@PaSenateDems) June 30, 2026

June 22, 2026: Senate GOP leaders ‘encouraged’ by budget talks, call for fiscal responsibility

Acknowledging the difficulties of divided government in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, Senate Republican leaders said on June 22 that they are “encouraged” by ongoing budget negotiations and called for a fiscally responsible end product.

“While divided government naturally brings differing perspectives and objectives, it also creates an opportunity to find common ground and put the needs of Pennsylvanians first,” Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Scott Martin said in a joint statement.

“Our Senate Republican Caucus priorities for this year continue to be that the final budget plan must be fiscally responsible, respect taxpayers, and position the Commonwealth for sustained growth,” the statement continued. “We are encouraged by the progress made to date and believe a budget agreement can come to fruition in the near future.”

June 12, 2026: Shapiro signs 9 appropriations bills into law

To date, Gov. Josh Shapiro has signed nine appropriations bills into law, funding government offices, entities and programs like the Pennsylvania State Police, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, the state’s two largest pension systems, the Public Utility Commission and the state’s Workers Compensation system, among others.

After signing the appropriations bills into law on June 12, Shapiro said that by signing the appropriations bills, the state is “ensuring we continue to process licenses and certificates quickly, support our retirees, and fund the agencies who serve hardworking Pennsylvanians.”

Shapiro noted that negotiations on a final, negotiated state budget continue. “This is the first step toward a final budget, and we will continue to have productive conversations with the House and Senate to deliver for the Commonwealth,” he said.

May 6, 2026: PA Rep. Jordan Harris pressures PA Senate to act on budget legislation

Speaking during a House Appropriations Committee meeting on Wednesday, House Appropriations Committee Majority Chair Jordan Harris put pressure on the Republican-controlled state Senate to act on budget legislation, arguing that Pennsylvania can’t afford another late state budget.

Harris said it has been 22 days since the House passed legislation mirroring Gov. Josh Shapiro’s February budget pitch, and cautioned that a late state budget could jeopardize funding for school districts and nonprofits.

“We cannot afford what we had last year, where our budget was more than 135 days late,” Harris said. “The State Senate does not have to agree with what we sent them, but they have to do something. If they don’t agree with what we sent, that’s fine. They could send us their own proposal. Our main focus remains clear: delivering a responsible, balanced and on time budget that invests in Pennsylvania’s education, supports our law enforcement, strengthens Pennsylvania’s economy and returns money back into the pockets of our working families.”

April 14, 2026: House lawmakers pass budget bill

On Tuesday, April 14, House lawmakers passed a General Appropriations bill with bipartisan support, advancing the bill to the Senate in a move that could make it easier to advance a negotiated state budget once Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration and lawmakers agree on a final product closer to the state’s June 30 budget deadline. The legislation, House Bill 2400, was advanced by the state House with a 107-94 vote on April 14, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle acknowledging that the bill’s passage is a first step in an ongoing budget process.

“Today’s passage of the proposed state budget is an important step in moving the General Appropriations bill process forward and keeping us on track to deliver an on-time budget for the people of Pennsylvania,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Jordan Harris said in a statement, noting that negotiations on the budget are ongoing. “This bill passed the House with bipartisan support, reflecting a shared commitment to moving this budget forward and getting a budget done on time.”

Following the House vote, Senate Republican leaders said they continue to have concerns about the level of spending in Shapiro’s proposal. “We continue to have profound concerns about the level of spending in the budget proposed by Governor Shapiro and passed by the House today,” Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Scott Martin said in a joint statement.

“Moving a budget plan forward is an important step in the process, but much work remains to reach a final agreement which respects taxpayers both now and in the future,” the trio added. “We will continue to fight for a more fiscally responsible spending plan that better positions our Commonwealth to grow and prosper, without placing unreasonable financial burdens on Pennsylvania families and taxpayers.”

Feb. 3, 2026: Shapiro presents $53.3B budget proposal

Gov. Josh Shapiro presented his fourth executive budget proposal to state lawmakers Tuesday, Feb. 3 – a $53.3 billion spending plan that called for continued funding for education and law enforcement, reforms on issues such as housing and data center development, and renewed calls for new revenue sources, including recreational marijuana and skill gaming machines. Democrats in the General Assembly praised Shapiro’s budget proposal, with House Appropriations Committee Chair Jordan Harris calling it a budget “that works for Pennsylvania and protects Pennsylvania.” Republican leaders, however, said the level of spending in the budget was too high. “The governor simply wants to spend too much money in this budget, period. Full stop,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman said following the governor’s budget address.

In the weeks following his budget speech, lawmakers in the state House and Senate held a series of appropriations hearings to gather more information on the spending levels and policy proposals in Shapiro’s budget pitch.

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Pennsylvanians can’t afford the U.S. Senate to validate corporate crypto grift

Jim Kenney — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 13:40:42 -0400

During my eight years as Mayor of Philadelphia, I learned that real leadership means standing up for working people and keeping the playing field fair. In a town like Philly, if a neighborhood corner store or a local contractor tried to write their own health codes or manipulate the city's licensing system to line their own pockets, they’d be shut down before lunch. But right now in Washington, the United States Senate is preparing to vote on cryptocurrency legislation that effectively gives powerful special interests the permission to rewrite the financial rulebook for their own gain.

The CLARITY Act arrives on the Senate floor as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is an industry-backed handout that lacks meaningful public-integrity or anti-corruption guardrails. The bill completely ignores the staggering conflicts of interest that arise when high-ranking public officials profit directly from the very markets they are supposed to regulate. Public service is supposed to be a sacred public trust, not a vehicle for personal profit. Yet, under the CLARITY Act, the guardrails for the crypto industry are nonexistent.

The scope of this self-dealing is truly unprecedented. Independent reporting by Forbes has revealed that President Donald Trump and his associates have built a sprawling, unvetted digital-asset fortune that accounts for an estimated $3.3 billion of the president’s $5.5 billion total net worth. While his administration and congressional allies drag their feet on oversight, Trump has actively promoted his family’s commercial stablecoin venture, World Liberty Financial, operated a bitcoin mining firm, and pocketed millions in transaction fees on his personal memecoins.

Just look at a recent, explosive investigation by NOTUS, which revealed that the Trump family’s commercial crypto venture is now expected to receive federal banking privileges. Think about that for a second. The Trump administration is actively drafting and negotiating federal laws to regulate digital assets while simultaneously positioning Trump’s own family business to secure a highly lucrative federal banking charter.

Without bright-line disclosure rules and strict conflict-of-interest bans, the CLARITY Act doesn’t protect consumers; far from it. It paves the way for what U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has accurately called a regulatory “superhighway for corruption.” It allows senior officials, legislators and their family members who hold massive, unvetted crypto portfolios to leverage insider information to manipulate markets for private profit. Who will be left to pay the price when the bubble bursts? Everyday Pennsylvania families.

The responsibility now rests on our leaders in the Senate to protect the integrity of our laws, our democracy and our financial system. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has spent his career fighting for working people and standing up to powerful insiders who think the rules don’t apply to them. I respectfully urge him not to accept legislation that falls short of fully prohibiting all elected and appointed public officials – including the president and vice president, and their families – from promoting, issuing or sponsoring crypto products and services, directly or indirectly.

An effort to ban an elected official from issuing tokens while completely exempting their immediate family members from the rulebook does not amount to real reform. It is an empty gesture that leaves the backdoor wide open to systemic corruption.

It is crucial that the Senate stands firm with Pennsylvanians who care about the integrity of our government and vote NO on the CLARITY Act until full, mandated ethics standards are explicitly written into the text.

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The City & State Q&A: Michael Newmuis

Greg Salisbury — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 11:05:26 -0400

In early 2024, when Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker offered Michael Newmuis the position of director of Philadelphia 2026 – a role that would make him the point person for a year that would include the nation’s semiquincentennial, the World Cup, the MLB All-Star Game, a joint session of Congress and more – there was no guarantee he would say yes. Newmuis took a leap of faith by signing on to lead an effort lagging in numerous key areas – including a severe shortfall in funding – for a city so tough on itself that a civic booster group once ran a campaign touting that “Philadelphia isn’t as bad as Philadelphians say it is.”

Barely two years later, Newmuis has led a turnaround so notable that Philadelphia 2026 has become the standard by which all other cities’ semiquincentennial efforts are being measured – and found wanting.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Note: Michael Newmuis is the chair of City & State’s Executive Advisory Board.

Was there anything that gave you pause before taking on this role?

Expectations for projects of this magnitude and visibility are high. Preparations for Pennsylvania and Philadelphia had had quite a few starts and stops over the years leading up to when Mayor Parker arrived, so we were tasked with bringing a lot of interested parties into the same tent, auditing the plans and sorting through how to best use public funds and public resources to execute this. It was not an easy undertaking with such a short window of time to get it all done. So, while it gave me pause, the exhilaration of being part of a truly unifying message and of helping community voices get heard was too exciting to pass up.

How did you ensure this would be a citywide effort and experience?

Mayor Parker was really intentional about ensuring that no one would feel left out of the celebration; one way to do that was to create opportunities for people of all ages, of all backgrounds, to have a role. For many cities and states across the United States, their America250 plan includes a major tentpole event. Obviously, we have quite a few in Philadelphia, right? But we really did work intentionally to spread this celebration across our neighborhoods to make sure that everything from the 23 replica Liberty Bells spread across the city to the tours that you take in, to the activations across our neighborhoods – these were built from our community levels up, not from the City Hall tower-down. That involved a lot of late-night Zooms to understand what people do and don’t want to see, a lot of stakeholder engagement across every single City Council district. It's been intense, but it's been a labor of love and joy.

What have been some of the more interesting challenges you and your team have faced?

If you'd asked me that two years ago, I would have said funding. Not a dollar had been allocated to the effort. We've not only made a $120 million investment, but we've also provided $30 million in grants for infrastructure and capacity building. The other early challenge we faced was premature Philadelphia pessimism. There was a narrative before we even began that didn't create a sense of wonder but a sense of fear – and now we've mitigated that by not only getting resources, but also educating folks about what is in our plan. As Meryl Levitz (the former longtime CEO of Visit Philadelphia) would always say, nothing quite changes the mental like the physical. I think now that people can physically see the lights turning on for the celebration, they can mentally understand what's happening and what went into it.

Tourists will come in force; how are you getting locals interested in what Philadelphia 2026 has to offer?

We were really intentional about making sure this celebration represents the best of our democracy's founding principles. One of the first groups I met with was the Welcoming Center. It has this beautiful program called Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers that creates civic dining series in neighborhoods with the highest concentration of immigration, bringing out folks who are new Americans and having them sit down for a meal with folks who have been here all their lives; it’s a way of making sure that we all realize that we're connected. We have been working with our Native American population to make Indigenous sources a central anchor through We Are the Seeds and the Native Nations Dance Theater, as well as with folks like Joan Myers Brown and Philadanco.

Newmuis hopes investments made for 2026 festivities will attract long-term investment into the city. Photo credit: Greg Salisbury

But what's been really exciting for me is looking at the ways in which the voices of youth can be empowered. There was such a fun moment during Sing That Jawn, the citywide vocal competition that places youth voices at the center of the celebration. There was a young girl in the audience watching her sister perform for a chance to land professional development arts funding for the school, and she just kept saying, "That's my sister, that's my sister!”

I think that's the spirit that we're seeking to amplify in all of our initiatives: that we're welcoming everyone – like the first LGBTQ+ visitors’ center that just opened, brand-new statues of Black female historical figures Harriet Tubman and Sadie Mosell Tanner Alexander, and the Young People's Continental Congress. These are just some of the examples of the work that we're doing to make sure that folks across every single City Council district can see themselves in the celebration.

What initiatives from this year do you see having a lasting impact? Which initiatives do you hope will have a lasting impact?

I think one of the key game changers that will pay dividends is the work we've done with the Commerce Department to take a hard look at neighborhoods and commercial corridors that have never really benefited from the economic impact of tourism. I think by working so intentionally to create anchors across Philadelphia through the commercial corridors that are serving high concentrations of jobs, the 250th has provided a real opportunity to set a standard for the ways in which we can leverage these big moments to bring folks out and spend in our neighborhoods and support those jobs. But even more important than that is the civic pride that is being generated by personally inviting neighborhoods to show up and to be a meaningful part of the celebration. People don't always feel included; if they feel that they are, that not only builds civic pride, but also increases a sense of ownership in their city for them and, hopefully, for the next generation.

How do you inspire spiritual celebration at a time when the country is so divided in so many ways?

We can't lose sight of the immense privilege of living in this country and how far we've come as a society. There's so much power in being in the United States of America, and in being in Philadelphia – particularly when every step you take on these cobblestone streets, you can see a mural that reflects someone's hopes and aspirations. There's a perfect reminder continually echoing about who we are, where we come from, and where we're heading as a society. And for Philadelphia, the answer is quite simple: We're looking to unify people. So, though we can't lose sight of the reality that we are in a polarizing time, we also can't let it be a reason not to celebrate all that brings us together. We've had great successes across both sides of the aisle. I've worked with the White House to secure critical funding. I've worked with Congress. I've worked with every member of Philadelphia City Council to ensure that the neighborhoods and the people are represented, and that their voice is amplified.

Are there any sleeper events/attractions you want to draw attention to?

On July 11, we're celebrating the 100th birthday of the Ben Franklin Bridge by closing it to have a huge party – that will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

One thing that happened recently that has not gotten a lot of coverage excites me because of what it means for the future. We unveiled a historical marker at Third and Market streets in honor of Miss Dalley’s Boarding House. Miss Mary Dalley was a Quaker abolitionist who housed three signers of the Declaration of Independence – Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, and Eldredge Gerry – but she also hired three Black servants, including a gentleman named Henry. Through the research that led up to that marker, more has been discovered about this young, free legal servant. It is truly exciting to be able to amplify stories that allow for further exploration of folks who are meaningful to history, but don't always have their names as part of history books.

What metrics will you use to measure Philadelphia 2026’s success?

So much of what we've done has not been about the bunting on the stage; it’s been about making strategic investments to position the people of Philadelphia and our businesses for a very successful future. Short-term metrics would obviously be hotel rooms and visitation numbers that are easy to track, but long-term, we want to attract increased investment into Philadelphia. That's why, for example, you're seeing the transformation of our highways, because you only get one chance to make a first impression. I hope over time we'll be able to see the dividends pay off through increased investment, but I think one of the greatest stories will be about how Philly came together in a very short amount of time, and we were able to pull together a celebration that has become the envy of other 250th destinations.

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Sens. McCormick and Fetterman tout ‘Trump accounts’ for kids during Philadelphia stop

Harrison Cann — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:31:10 -0400

Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators paid a visit to the Philadelphia Youth Basketball program Monday to pitch the federal child savings accounts set to open on the Fourth of July.

Coined “Trump accounts,” the children’s investment accounts – which provide a federal seed investment of $1,000 to American children born on or after January 1, 2025 – were part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law on July 4, 2025.

Exactly one year later, the window opens for a parent or guardian to open up a Treasury-backed savings account for their child – with the expectation that investment returns will compound without being taxed.

“The (accounts) are a way to make sure everybody takes advantage in the growing economy, and so it’s a great step forward for our country,” Sen. Dave McCormick said at the press conference Monday. “It’s not a partisan issue. In other words, there’s no politics – the idea is to create opportunity for every single person.”

With the help of Michael and Susan Dell, who donated more than $6 billion to kickstart the financial accounts, children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028 will receive $1,000 in seed money contributed by the federal government. And, as officials announced Monday, children outside the federal eligibility window may also claim a $250 investment contribution through the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, available to children 10 and under living in households with a median family income of $150,000 or less.

There are an estimated 1.4 million children in Pennsylvania who are eligible for $250 or more in federal seed investment and support from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

Sen. John Fetterman, whose hoodie and gym shorts fit right in at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center and the Philly Youth Basketball program, made the team-building argument when talking about working in Congress.

“(McCormick) and I are on different teams. He’s a Republican, I’m a Democrat, but we’re here today because we want all of you one day to be millionaires and we want you to have your financial security in life,” Fetterman said Monday. “Let’s be frank: Sometimes politics get involved … These are very simple, and this has nothing to do about politics or the name … It’s about your futures.”

Flanked by Brad Gerstner, founder of Invest America, and more than 100 children, McCormick and Fetterman emphasized they’re “fighting for Pennsylvania” regardless of what side of the aisle they sit on.

McCormick told reporters a fundamental problem in the country is the “growing concentration of wealth,” a remark that Fetterman said made McCormick sound like a Democrat.

“It’s been the best 15 years in modern history, maybe in the history of humanity, for people that had assets,” McCormick claimed. “If you had assets, you just got a lot richer, but if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, then you were worse off, because inflation was up and wages didn’t keep (up), particularly during the Biden administration.”

Gerstner explained that BNY, in collaboration with Robinhood, will manage the children’s investment accounts. Similar to traditional IRAs or retirement accounts, the funds will be invested in stock indexes like the S&P 500, and children won’t be able to withdraw from the accounts until they turn 18. Each account will convert to a standard traditional IRA in the year the beneficiary turns 18.

“Under the current legislation, (at age 18) they can take up to 25% out to go to college, buy a home (or) start a business, and the rest rolls automatically into an IRA,” Gerstner told reporters. “You can take out (of the IRA) for emergencies and other things, but for the most part, the expectation is that a portion of this will compound and a portion can be spent at 18 in order to improve their lives.”

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The 2026 CSPA Philadelphia Power Brokers

Hilary Danailova — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:50:00 -0400

“Philly is a city with heart, grit, and incredible food,” sums up Donna Bailey, the CEO of Community Behavioral Health and one of CSPA’s 2026 Philly Power Brokers. Indeed, those qualities – passion, resilience and an appreciation for local cuisine – surfaced repeatedly in our inaugural list of the makers, shakers and innovators in Pennsylvania’s largest city. As America celebrates the 250th anniversary of democracy in its birthplace, these dynamic Philadelphians would surely have made the Founders proud.

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New legislation, tech look to counter rising healthcare workplace violence

Hilary Danailova — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:29:04 -0400

Over a decade and a half as a practicing nurse, state Rep. Tarik Khan of Philadelphia has taken the kinds of blows more often associated with athletic careers.

The former president of the Pennsylvania State Nurses’ Association recalls being headbutted into a concussion by a patient with intellectual disabilities, and attacked by another patient who was frantically seeking opioids – an encounter that left the legislator wearing a permanent knee brace.

“It’s unfortunately very common,” said Khan of healthcare workplace violence. Sobering statistics bear that out: Nationally, healthcare workers suffered nearly three-quarters of all nonfatal workplace injuries due to violence, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nurses and their colleagues were five times more likely than all other workers to be punched, kicked, bitten, beaten, choked and assaulted on the job.

A WPXI-TV statewide survey of 500 healthcare workers last year found that 90% of Pennsylvania healthcare workers said they had experienced physical abuse on the job – and a full 50% of them had considered leaving their careers because of violence.

Incidents like the 2025 mass shooting at UPMC Memorial Hospital in York County – where a patient’s disgruntled family member took hostages in the hospital’s intensive care unit, leaving one victim and the perpetrator dead and seven wounded – only underline the crisis.

The trend, which accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, has strained recruitment and retention efforts, intensifying the industry’s already critical labor shortage.

Physical security “has (long) been a problem – but now we’re to the point where physicians, nurses, healthcare workers leave their profession because of the violence,” said Maureen May, a neonatal intensive care nurse at Temple Health who, as the longtime president of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurses and Allied Health Professionals, has led a years-long crusade to address the issue.

Now, Khan and other Pennsylvania legislators are pushing measures to counter the trend – including bills with bipartisan backing that would give healthcare workers more control over their own workplace safety and greater resources to bolster security. Meanwhile, several commonwealth health systems have turned to a digital device that issues a discreet call for backup to provide threatened workers with additional cover.

“For years, I’ve heard from nurses about what they face on the job,” said state Rep. Jason Ortitay, a Republican representing Allegheny and Washington counties and a co-sponsor of the healthcare workers’ support bill. “These are the people who take care of us on our worst days – and they should be able to do that work without fearing for their own safety. Keeping healthcare workers safe isn’t a Republican or Democrat issue. It’s just the right thing to do.”

Measures with momentum

The bill Ortitay referred to, which is championed by May’s state nurses’ union, would require every healthcare facility to devise a violence prevention plan – with input from frontline healthcare staff – and to support workers after security incidents. The measure, which has myriad bipartisan co-sponsors, would also protect workers from retaliation after reporting incidents, and give the state the power to hold facilities accountable for lax security.

“This bill gives health facilities real tools to protect their workers,” affirmed Ortitay, “from violence prevention committees to clear reporting, so incidents don’t get swept aside.”

Nurses support the legislation for giving teeth to “accountability and enforcement,” as May put it. She explained that while many people mistakenly believe that workplace safety is regulated by the Occupational Health & Safety Administration, that federal agency only provides voluntary guidance – as does the Joint Commission, a preeminent healthcare facilities accreditation body. No entity actually enforces those guidelines, May cautioned.

Funding for security is also an issue for healthcare facilities, many of which – especially in rural areas – are already under growing financial strain from declining populations and insurance rates. In response, Khan spearheaded the Hospital Work Safety Grant Program, legislation that would provide state monies for facilities to invest in safety strategies and infrastructure.

A third bill is the Patient Safety Act, which would establish minimum staffing standards for nursing and other healthcare workers. More nurses could obviously translate into better care, but Khan pointed out that simply having more employees around can tamp down flaring tempers – for example, in overcrowded ER waiting rooms – and facilitate earlier interventions.

The idea “is to find ways to just sort of calm things down and lower the temperature,” the Democratic lawmaker explained. “It keeps patients safe; it also keeps healthcare workers safe … There is ample evidence that the Patient Safety Act saves lives.”

“Healthcare providers – we expect them to be on the front lines, taking care of us when we need them,” added Khan, a sponsor or co-sponsor of all three bills. “And it doesn’t work if you show up to the hospital and you don’t have people there because … workers (are) basically being beaten.”

An outbreak of violence

Nurses have been sounding an ever-louder alarm since the pandemic, which strained Americans’ relationship to the healthcare establishment and frayed social norms. The fallout, health workers say, is accelerating violence at healthcare workplaces nationwide.

“Years ago, we would just shrug it off … But we have a very violent society now,” observed May, recalling a recent incident in which an Einstein Health technician had her finger bitten off and spat across the room by an out-of-control patient. “It’s all just escalated. And COVID did not help.”

Kali Gargone, a nurse in the perioperative area at Geisinger CMC in Scranton, affirmed that the pandemic had a coarsening effect on behavior – especially in healthcare settings, which were the backdrop for that era’s most polarizing controversies, such as masks and vaccines.

“Since COVID, we’ve seen a definite increase in violence from patients who are not necessarily confused, and from visitors, too,” said Gargone, the membership chair of the Northeast Pennsylvania Nurses Association and a member-at-large of PASNAP’s executive board.

While nurses “get the brunt of it as the 24/7 bedside workers,” any patient- or visitor-facing healthcare employee is vulnerable, she added. “It’s not a matter of, are you going to suffer either some type of physical or verbal assault; it’s when.”

Much of the current legislation speaks to workers’ desire to wrest some control over workplaces that – driven by marketplace concerns and patient satisfaction scores – increasingly cater to clients rather than advocating for employees, in many nurses’ view.

Gargone related a recent incident at her own hospital in which a visitor repeatedly singled out and threatened a nurse. “The visitor was not asked to leave. They were not reprimanded in any way, and in fact, they were catered to,” she recalled. “Then the nurse was asked, ‘What could you have done to have de-escalated the situation? What could you have done to make them more satisfied?’”

Nurses, she explained, are looking for greater agency over their day-to-day security. For many, the rising unease is exacerbated by security standards that vary widely between hospitals – with some facilities assiduously screening visitors through guarded entrances, metal detectors and backpack checks, and others screening little or not at all.

May said that rising violence was the main issue in last year’s union negotiations for nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital, where lax security had workers spooked. “Nurses there were willing to use their treasury to help pay for a weapons detector,” she noted. “That’s how desperate they were.”

Hands-on security solutions

In Central Pennsylvania, WellSpan Health facilities have reduced rates of workplace violence-related injury by two-thirds by outfitting frontline healthcare staff with a wearable safety device – the literal and figurative linchpin of the health system’s violence prevention initiative.

The equipment, from the Silicon Valley outfit Canopy, was originally developed in partnership with Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health to facilitate faster emergency response through systemwide alerts.

“We’ve made a deliberate decision to address (the workplace violence) trend head-on through proactive, systemwide investments in safety, training and technology,” Patricia Donley, WellSpan’s senior vice president and chief nursing executive, told City & State. “Our focus is not just on responding to incidents, but on preventing them.” The goal, she added, is to make “our caregivers feel safe and supported.”

Canopy and WellSpan Health recently released the results of a case study showing the success of the digital platform, which allows nurses to discreetly push a button alerting colleagues to an escalating situation. Bill White, the health system’s public safety chief, noted that prior to the introduction of the device, frontline staff lacked a reliable method to quickly signal for help.

Canopy’s clinical strategy directors, Ryan Oglesby and Jeanne Venella – both veteran emergency nurses – said the company trains healthcare workers to “press early and press often,” said Oglesby, who is also the immediate past president of the Emergency Nurses Association.

“Oftentimes two other feet and two other eyes entering the room is enough to break the tension,” added Venella, “or to get a staff member to safety by saying, ‘Maybe you could step out for a second,’ or ‘The charge nurse is looking for you’ – something to just defuse the situation.”

While policies and platforms can all be helpful, experts agree that a comprehensive approach is essential to reverse the trend of violent behavior. Most significantly, nurses emphasize, any solution must include input from the frontline caregivers themselves.

“The healthcare workers who are there, who are actually living it every day, who are dealing with violence,” said Khan, “are the ones who are best informed to know – where are the opportunities, where are the strengths in terms of security, and what is needed.”

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This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

City & State — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:00:00 -0400

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Rutgers University researchers, examining rodent samples from Philadelphia, New Jersey, NewYork City and Washington D.C., found that mice are rapidly mutating – with many now surviving the poisons designed to kill them. As for rats, well, researchers say they’re learning to avoid traps and other extermination methods.

Keep reading for more winners and losers!

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In bipartisan fashion, PA lawmakers vote to repeal tax incentives for data centers

Justin Sweitzer — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 15:41:28 -0400

In an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote that put Pennsylvania’s shifting data center politics on full display, lawmakers in the state House of Representatives approved legislation on Thursday that would repeal state tax incentives for data centers, reversing course on a policy enacted five years ago.

Lawmakers voted 197-5 to pass House Bill 2198, legislation that would repeal the state’s Computer Data Center Equipment Incentive Program, which provides millions of dollars in tax incentives to data center owners and operators each year.

Democratic state Rep. Greg Vitali, the prime sponsor of the bill, said the program – which is expected to cost the state $188.4 million in the 2026-27 fiscal year and grow to $517 million by 2030 – is unnecessary given the abundance of data centers proposed in communities across Pennsylvania.

“Think of what an additional $517 million can buy as far as budgetary needs,” Vitali said Thursday during debate on the House floor. “We’re giving these sales tax exemptions to companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet – companies that have net incomes in excess of $100 billion a year. This is not right. This is not needed. This is not what our constituents want.”

Vitali added that the tax incentives, which provide Sales and Use Tax refunds for qualifying data center equipment purchases, were enacted at a time when the state was looking to encourage data center development. But with communities actively organizing and pushing back against data center proposals in nearly every corner of the state, Vitali said the appetite for such projects has changed.

“Now we are in a situation where we’re working on moratorium legislation with regard to data centers. We’re trying to put the brakes on, so clearly this sales tax exemption is no longer needed,” he said.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol, lawmakers in the state Senate passed a Tax Code bill that, among other things, also included language that would eliminate the same tax incentive program. The Tax Code bill, House Bill 1667, passed with a 44-6 vote.

The votes come at a moment when Pennsylvanians are growing increasingly concerned about the development of data centers in their communities.

According to a December 2025 poll from Emerson College, 42% of Pennsylvanians said they would oppose data centers being built in their communities, while 34% said they would support data center proposals. The survey found that 24% said they would be neutral or have no opinion.

Similarly, a public health survey conducted this year by Muhlenberg College’s Institute of Public Opinion found that 1 in 5 Pennsylvanians identified data centers as a crisis facing the state, while another 43% of respondents said data centers are a problem, but not a crisis.

Data centers have also become a topic of conversation in this year’s gubernatorial race, as both Gov. Josh Shapiro and state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the GOP nominee for governor, have weighed in on the growing number of data center proposals across the commonwealth.

In his budget address earlier this year, Shapiro outlined a set of standards for data center developers – known as the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development, or GRID, Standards – that data center developers would need to meet to secure faster permitting approvals and other state tax benefits. In order to receive a state-issued GRID Certification, developers must submit a plan outlining how they will power their facilities, commit to hiring local labor, establish community outreach, and seek to limit water usage and air pollution.

“I know Pennsylvanians have real concerns about these data centers and the impact they could have on our communities, our utility bills, and our environment – and so do I,” Shapiro said in his February budget address.

Garrity has called for a pause on data center development, and has held a series of listening sessions across the state to hear from residents about their concerns around data centers.

The House passed two other data center bills this week. One of them, House Bill 2650, would codify Shapiro’s GRID standards in state law. The other, House Bill 2496, would allow municipalities to institute a 180-day pause on data center development applications while they adopt or update land use ordinances.

Those bills, as well as HB 2198, now await consideration in the state Senate.

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In wake of high court ruling, Pennsylvanians rally for a skill games solution

Justin Sweitzer — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 16:22:34 -0400

Approximately 350 people rallied on the steps of the Pennsylvania Capitol on Wednesday to call on state lawmakers to pass legislation that would regulate and tax skill gaming machines – a plea that comes in the wake of a recent state Supreme Court decision that found that the gaming machines are, in fact, illegal gambling machines subject to the state’s Gaming Act and Crimes Code.

That ruling prompted proponents of the games – ranging from members of fraternal clubs and fire companies to convenience store operators and state legislators – to convene in Harrisburg and pressure lawmakers to create a legal framework for the gaming machines, which have become commonplace in bars, clubs, convenience stores and other locations. As part of its opinion, the Supreme Court established a 120-day safe harbor period during which law enforcement is prohibited from taking action against skill game operators.

Doug Sprankle, the president of the Pennsylvania Taverns and Players Association and the owner of several grocery stores in Western Pennsylvania, said Wednesday that skill games are a “lifeline” for small businesses and organizations throughout the commonwealth. Sprankle said that without a new law establishing a regulatory framework for the games, everyday Pennsylvanians will feel the brunt of the court’s decision.

“We have less than 120 days until skill games become illegal,” Sprankle said, noting that over 1,000 businesses could be affected by the court’s June 15 ruling. “It’s a big thing for Pennsylvania.”

Democrats and Republicans alike have introduced legislation to tax and regulate games of skill in Pennsylvania. In the state Senate, Republican state Sen. Gene Yaw and Democratic state Sen. Anthony H. Williams are the prime sponsors of Senate Bill 1079, which would create a $500 monthly fee per skill game terminal and limit the total number of gaming terminals in the state to 50,000. They estimate that the proposal would generate $300 million in annual revenue for the state. Democratic state Rep. Danilo Burgos and GOP state Rep. Jonathan Fritz sponsored similar legislation in the state House of Representatives.

In his 2026-27 budget proposal, Gov. Josh Shapiro called on the General Assembly to regulate and tax games of skill with a 52% tax on gross terminal revenues from skill games, which his administration estimated would generate more than $2 billion annually. The Shapiro administration estimates that there are as many as 70,000 skill game machines across the state.

Speaking at the state Capitol on Wednesday, Burgos called a 52% tax rate “nonsense.”

“We need to create an avenue so that these skill games can continue to contribute to our communities and to Pennsylvania. A fair tax is what we’re demanding,” Burgos said. “We need to get to work and provide a fair plan, so that our businesses here in Pennsylvania are protected, so that Main Street is protected – not Wall Street.”

Williams suggested Wednesday that proponents of skill games in the General Assembly could theoretically block a budget deal, and it appears that the issue – and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling – could loom over ongoing budget negotiations.

State Sen. Anthony Williams said lawmakers supporting skill games could threaten to block the state budget if the legislature is unable to agree on a framework to legalize skill games. pic.twitter.com/MjsMN57bnD
— Justin Sweitzer (@justin_sweitzer) June 24, 2026

Following the court’s June 15 ruling, Senate Republican leaders said gaming reform will likely be a “critical piece” of this year’s budget cycle.

“The proliferation of skill games is a matter of public safety which must be addressed, and given the timing of this decision, we believe gaming reform is a critical piece of resolving this year’s budget,” Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward and Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman said in a joint statement following the court’s ruling. “In addition, with the fiscal realities facing our Commonwealth, it stands to reason that new revenue from gaming reform should be directed to the general fund, as the Governor proposed in his 2026-27 budget.”

Hundreds of skill games supporters traveled to Harrisburg to rally in support of the gaming machines on Wednesday. Photo credit: Justin Sweitzer

The potential state revenue aside, members of various veterans organizations said Wednesday that skill games allowed them to weather financial hardships and put money back into their local communities.

Mark Coolbough, a member of the Cressona American Legion Post 286 in Schuylkill County, said money from skill games has helped the organization pay for bills and licenses and support community initiatives. “Skill games keep our doors open – period,” he said. Commander Stephen Holmes of the Ephraim Slaughter American Legion Post 733 in Harrisburg said if it weren’t for skill game revenue, his post, which leads backpack drives for local students and programs for veterans, likely would have shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to Wednesday’s rally at the Capitol, Eric L. Hausler, the CEO of Parx Casino, said in a statement that skill games have eaten into casino revenues and that taxpayers have been the biggest victims of the growth of skill games. He accused Pace-O-Matic, the developer behind the Pennsylvania Skill brand of skill machines, of selling small businesses “a bill of goods when they maintained these games were legal and not subject to gaming taxes and regulation.”

“POM claims that these businesses are the victim. The real victims are the taxpayers of Pennsylvania. Casinos pay more than 50% of their gross slot machine revenues in taxes, 34% of which funds property tax relief programs,” Hausler said, arguing that skill games “have drained more than $250 million in total casino gaming taxes from the state that could have funded property tax relief and local and county programs.”

Sprankle said SB 1079 and HB 2213 would be an ideal solution for regulating skill games across the commonwealth by creating a working framework that would eliminate bad actors in illegal gaming.

“It’s important that lawmakers act. We don’t want something that’s rushed; we want something that builds the foundation for our future,” he said.

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PA pols react to President Trump nixing bipartisan housing legislation

Harrison Cann — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:33:06 -0400

A national Whole-Home Repairs pilot program is on hold after President Trump canceled the signing of a broad bipartisan housing bill on Wednesday, saying he wouldn’t sign the legislation until the Senate passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which includes zoning deregulation and new programs to help communities address housing affordability, was passed in overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion in both the U.S. House and Senate this week and met with celebration from many Pennsylvania elected officials.

The Whole-Home Repairs section of the bill – which would create a federal pilot program to provide grants and loans to people to repair and weatherize aging homes – mirrors the commonwealth program of the same name.

Pennsylvania’s Whole-Home Repairs program, championed by state Sen. Nikil Saval, received $125 million in funding in 2022 to help property owners repair and weatherize their homes and to support training and pre-apprenticeship programs. Referred to as a “one-stop shop” program for home repairs, Pennsylvania’s Whole-Home Repairs program benefitted nearly 4,000 households in its first iteration – and was so popular that the number of waitlisted households remains at roughly 17,000 – a number that officials believe is an undercount.

Now, with Trump’s sudden move to refuse to sign the legislation unless the SAVE Act – a sweeping and highly criticized elections bill – receives congressional approval, the housing package has been halted.

“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Saval said in a statement that in “the midst of a protracted housing affordability crisis, we must be doing everything we can to ensure working people have homes that are safe, healthy, and that they can afford.

“President Trump’s abrupt cancellation of the signing of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act ignores the dire need for relief for millions of people struggling to afford their rent, energy bills, or long-delayed home repairs—challenges that don’t know party or district bounds,” Saval said in a statement Wednesday. “This bill was the result of months of work by dozens of legislators, hundreds of advocates, and thousands of people across the United States. I remain hopeful that a path forward will be found and committed to continuing the fight against the overlapping housing and climate crises. My efforts are with those across our Commonwealth and our country who are committed to this, too.”

The majority of the Pennsylvania delegation also criticized the political decision, with GOP Rep. Scott Perry being the only exception. He backed up his vote against the bill – the only no vote cast among the state’s congressional delegation – and blamed the Senate for the disruption:

POTUS asked for the SAVE Act.

America NEEDS the SAVE Act.

The American People WANT the SAVE Act.
(see the bipartisan polling)

The House DELIVERED the SAVE Act - months ago.

The Senate is IGNORING you.

Call them and demand:

PASS THE SAVE ACT! pic.twitter.com/z9I7MC06AK
— Rep. Scott Perry (@RepScottPerry) June 24, 2026

Fellow Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who advocated for the legislation, has remained silent on the topic thus far, despite trumpeting its passage in the House on Tuesday with his Problem Solver Caucus compatriot, New York Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi.

“(The bill) just cleared the house overwhelmingly … (If) you come up with a two-party solution, on affordability issues including this one, it can get the job done,” Fitzpatrick said Tuesday following passage.

When both sides choose to work together, big things can get done.

Tonight, the House passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act with overwhelming bipartisan support, advancing a bicameral effort to address one of the biggest challenges facing American families: housing… pic.twitter.com/u10e6S3wCN
— Problem Solvers Caucus (@ProbSolveCaucus) June 24, 2026

Meanwhile, Democratic Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, Chris Deluzio and Mary Gay Scanlon spoke out against the move:

We were minutes away from making housing more affordable. Democrats and Republicans in Congress worked together to pass this bill, the first to address housing in more than three decades. Deciding at the very last minute to hold this bill hostage in order to try to get a voter… pic.twitter.com/EA66yK9Ijw
— Chrissy Houlahan (@RepHoulahan) June 24, 2026

Democrats and Republicans did something rare: they passed bipartisan legislation to actually fix the American housing crisis—to make it easier to build more houses and buy a home.

All Trump had to do was sign his name.

Instead, he’s refusing, putting his obsession with… https://t.co/WinChSLHlo
— Chris Deluzio (@ChrisForPA) June 24, 2026

The President’s priorities are crystal clear: he’d rather hold housing for struggling families hostage than give up an opportunity to suppress votes. https://t.co/9YhVR3IJC8
— Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (@RepMGS) June 24, 2026

The commonwealth’s senior U.S. senator, John Fetterman, who voted in support of the housing bill alongside Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, previously introduced a federal version of the Whole-Home Repairs program in 2024.

“I’ve consistently maintained that our housing crisis needs real solutions that help address the problems at the center. I’m proud to see both of my bills included in the housing package that just passed the House – one ensures families can stay in their homes, and the other helps state partners enact zoning reforms,” Fetterman said in a statement Tuesday. “I want to thank State Senator Nikil Saval for being a strong advocate for the Whole-Home Repairs program in Pennsylvania and helping bring this to the national level.”

Fetterman and McCormick, who have both remained silent on the issue on social media Wednesday, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

That latest version of the home repair bill would give homeowners and small landlords – those with fewer than 10 residential rental properties and not more than 50 total units, with a majority being affordable units and used as primary residences – grant and loan opportunities to rebuild and repair their aging homes much like the commonwealth-wide program.

According to Politico, despite broad, bipartisan support for the broader housing bill in both the House and Senate, the two chambers went back and forth on the legislation for months over the more than-45 different provisions included in the bill. And just before passage on Tuesday, albeit unsuccessful, House GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna attempted to persuade members to stop proceedings.

Trump then took a turn Wednesday morning, posting on Truth Social that he wouldn’t sign the bill unless the Senate moves forward with the SAVE Act – a move that’s even rattled some Republicans.

The housing bill passed the House and Senate with large, veto-proof majorities, though if the president doesn’t sign the bill within 10 days and Congress adjourns, it could fall victim to a pocket veto.

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Four years later, the Dobbs decision metastasizes into four new battles

Signe Espinoza — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 11:54:44 -0400

Four years ago this month, the U.S. Supreme Court told millions of Americans that a right they had held their entire lives no longer existed.

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the court erased nearly half a century of constitutional protection for abortion and handed state-level politicians unprecedented power over some of the most personal healthcare decisions people will ever make.

Anniversaries usually invite reflection. This one demands more. Because four years after Dobbs, we are fighting many battles for our freedom. Today, I’m highlighting four of them.

Consider what those four years have already cost us. Since Dobbs, more than a dozen states have enacted total abortion bans, while others have imposed near-total bans that prohibit care as early as six weeks of pregnancy, before someone even knows they are pregnant. Millions of Americans now live in states where abortion is effectively out of reach. Patients have been forced to travel hundreds of miles for care, delay or forgo time-sensitive and essential care, or continue pregnancies against their will.

Pennsylvania has become a lifeline for those patients, a critical access point for care that should never have been denied in the first place. But Planned Parenthood health centers are operating beyond their capacity with limited support. While the commonwealth has not enacted an abortion ban, we know our rights remain vulnerable. As long as abortion access depends on biannual election outcomes and court decisions, no one can afford to be complacent.

Abortion was only the beginning. The movement that toppled Roe has spent four years opening new fronts in a much larger war on our healthcare. Four fronts, to be exact.

First, extremists are targeting gender-affirming care. Across the country, lawmakers continue to propose restrictions on lifesaving and essential care for transgender people and insert politics yet again into decisions that should only be made between patients, families and healthcare providers. The same politicians who claimed Dobbs was about “returning decisions to the states” are now working to dictate private medical decisions nationwide. If the government can come between a patient and one form of care, it can come between a patient and any form of care.

Which is exactly the goal of the second fight: the relentless campaign against mifepristone, one of the safest and most studied medications in America. Medication abortion now accounts for the majority of abortions nationwide, and opponents know that restricting access to mifepristone is one of their clearest paths toward a national abortion ban. These attacks aren't based on science or medicine. They’re based on ideology and they’re playing out in our court system with a roller coaster of an appeals process that leaves patients confused and limited.

And when attacking the medicine is not enough, they attack the people who provide it. The third fight targets providers themselves. Efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and other community health centers threaten access to cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing and treatment, wellness exams and preventive care for millions of patients. For the past year, a federal ban has barred patients from using Medicaid at reproductive health centers like Planned Parenthood’s nationwide network. When lawmakers attack trusted providers, patients pay the price.

Increasingly, they pay it in dollars, which brings us to the fourth fight: what advocates have begun calling “sexflation”: the rising cost of simply having sex.

Condom prices have increased alongside the cost of everyday goods, exacerbated by supply chain problems in the war with Iran. Insurance coverage for contraceptive care is not guaranteed, let alone protected. Federal and state restrictions continue to limit abortion coverage through Medicaid, forcing low-income patients to shoulder costs that many simply cannot afford. At a time when healthcare costs are already straining family budgets, basic sexual healthcare is becoming increasingly expensive and increasingly out of reach.

Four fights. One pattern. Each is an attempt to take decisions that belong to you, about your body, your health, your future, your family, and hand them to politicians. People face more barriers, fewer providers, higher costs and greater uncertainty than they did just a few years ago. For young people, working families, rural communities, LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians and those already struggling to make ends meet, these barriers cut the deepest.

The promise of reproductive freedom has never been just about the legal right to abortion. It is about the ability to make decisions about your body, your health, your future, and your family without political interference. Rights on paper mean little if care is unavailable, unaffordable or inaccessible.

That is why this anniversary cannot be a moment of mourning. It must be a call to action.

Lawmakers pay attention when constituents speak up. They notice when voters call their offices, attend their town halls, submit testimony, and show up at the ballot box. The policies shaping access to healthcare are not inevitable. They are choices made by elected officials and elected officials can be held accountable by all of us.

So Pennsylvanians should answer four fights with four demands: Defend gender-affirming care. Preserve access to medication abortion. Reject every effort to defund our healthcare providers and work to fund them instead. And make contraceptive and abortion care affordable and accessible for everyone.

Four years after Dobbs, we know exactly what is at stake.

The question before us is whether we will allow politicians to continue chipping away at our healthcare and our freedoms, or mark this dark anniversary by standing together and insisting that every person deserves the ability to access the care they need, when they need it, without barriers or political interference.

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Update: Congress passes bipartisan housing affordability bill featuring PA-originated program

Harrison Cann — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 19:49:00 -0400

A popular housing program first pitched by a Philadelphia state senator in 2022 has become the model for a home repair program just advanced by Congress.

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which includes zoning deregulation and new programs to help communities address housing affordability, features a familiar name in Pennsylvania politics: the Whole-Home Repairs Act.

The Whole-Home Repairs section of the bill – which will create a federal pilot program to provide grants and loans to people to repair and weatherize aging homes – mirrors the commonwealth program of the same name.

The federal bill, HR 6644, passed in the upper chamber by an 85-5 vote on Monday and a 358-32 vote in the House on Tuesday. It now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for final approval, which is expected to occur on Wednesday.

Home coming

Referred to as a “one-stop shop” program for home repairs, Pennsylvania’s Whole-Home Repairs program benefitted nearly 4,000 households in its first iteration – and was so popular that the number of waitlisted households remains at roughly 17,000 – a number that officials believe is an undercount.

“When we passed the Whole-Home Repairs Program, we hoped it would offer a blueprint for other states grappling with how to preserve their aging housing stock and protect the health of their residents,” Saval said in a statement. “I’m enormously proud for Pennsylvania to have laid the path for national housing action and immensely grateful to our federal partners for their vision and dedication in making it possible for people across the country to live in homes that are warm, safe, and dry.”

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, who voted in support of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, also introduced legislation last year to create a national Whole-Home Repairs pilot after previously advocating for a federal program.

“I’ve consistently maintained that our housing crisis needs real solutions that help address the problems at the center. I’m proud to see both of my bills included in the housing package that just passed the House – one ensures families can stay in their homes, and the other helps state partners enact zoning reforms,” Fetterman said in a statement. “I want to thank State Senator Nikil Saval for being a strong advocate for the Whole-Home Repairs program in Pennsylvania and helping bring this to the national level.”

Several other states, including Maine, Maryland and Washington, all implemented similar programs, and Saval has consulted with federal policymakers on adopting a national program.

Congressional copy

The long-awaited federal housing package, introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers – U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott and Reps. Maxine Waters and French Hill – includes almost 60 different provisions aimed at building and maintaining more housing while restricting large investors from buying new single-family homes.

The Whole-Home Repairs Act section in HR 6644 will provide for modifications, repairs or updates to homeowner and renter-occupied units to address a number of habitability and safety concerns, as well as energy efficiency and accessibility updates for individuals with disabilities and older adults.

Much like the Pennsylvania program, the pilot program will provide grants to local organizations administering the repair programs for qualifying homeowners and small landlords – those with fewer than 10 eligible rental properties with a majority of affordable units and not more than 25 total units.

Eligible homeowners and landlords can apply for a grant to fund anything from a bathroom, kitchen or outdoor modification – such as handrail and ramp installation or porch and sidewalk repairs – to weatherization and utility fixes. The federal pilot will also provide forgivable loans to eligible landlords to implement repair projects not covered by other federal home repair programs.

“The (Pennsylvania) program provided, for the first time, a statewide response to the epidemic of disrepair affecting our aging homes. It offered a means for people to weatherize their homes against extreme weather and the high costs of energy. It made resources available to residents to adapt their homes so they could remain even as their abilities changed,” Saval said. “Now, these benefits will be available to communities nationwide – a victory made possible through the unwavering efforts of a dedicated coalition of advocates, organizers and residents.”

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This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

City & State — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 17:29:07 -0400

Thanks to a ruling this week by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the odds of a skill games payout to the commonwealth’s coffers just got a lot higher.

In a majority ruling, the state’s highest court stated that skill games are slot machines according to state law – a decision that will leave the roughly 70,000 machines currently operating in Pennsylvania businesses and their owners in the wrong kind of jackpot.

Proponents of keeping skill games categorized separately from slots still have an ace to play: The high court gave state legislators 120 days to come up with their own plan to regulate the machines, stating, “Naturally, because all that follows is a consequence of statutory law, our General Assembly also remains free at any time to take whatever legislative action it may deem appropriate.”

Keep reading for more winners and losers!

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Philadelphia’s City Government Youth Summit takes over City Hall

Harrison Cann — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:35:09 -0400

Perhaps The Who put it best in the chorus of one of their signature rock anthems: “The kids are alright.” Exhibit A: The Philadelphia City Government Youth Summit, held at City Hall on Wednesday, which showcased potential next-generation public servants eager to gain firsthand experience.

The one-day, immersive civic leadership experience focused on developing tomorrow's public leaders. High school students involved in the program had the opportunity to assume the role of a lawmaker, administrator, stakeholder or member of the press and take part in a mock session within City Hall.

Jada Fagan, the student-elected mayor of the day, is a recent graduate of Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School who is headed to Rutgers University next year and plans to attend law school.

“It’s been a little nerve-wracking,” Fagan admitted to her first-ever gaggle of reporters Wednesday. “(I’ve learned) to be less of a complainer and more of a problem-solver … the team has been pretty easy with articulating what they want to see from me.”

One of the many students-turned-lawmakers working alongside Fagan was Ja’Kiyah Wright, who was chosen to represent the 2nd councilmanic district, which covers much of South Philadelphia and Center City.

“It’s one of those spaces where a lot of people look at me for an answer for things, which has been a little difficult and a little positive,” Wright, a commercial and advertising student at Universal Audenried Charter High School, told reporters.

Between role orientations, individual branch breakout sessions, and negotiation meetings, students heard from Mayor Cherelle Parker and members of City Council, all of whom took questions from participants.

“This is extremely essential for the City of Philadelphia right now – we need to ensure that our young people … understand that, whether or they like it or not, government touches your life from birth to death,” Parker said Wednesday. “It doesn’t matter whether or not you think it’s something that’s engaging – (government) is one of the most influential tools available to ensure the democratic principles that we all hold dear.”

Surrounded by portraits of past mayors in City Hall’s second-floor reception room, Parker stressed the importance of mentorship and feeling like you belong at the table regardless of your background.

“This exposure here today is essential, because we want this to be your norm – we want this to be your standard,” Parker added.

Students peppered Parker and Councilmembers with questions about their motivations, responsibilities and more – and made sure to ask for words of advice from the elected officials too.

“I didn’t run for office to be a footnote in somebody else’s history book,” Parker said. “The fact that I am the first woman to sit at the table makes me feel an extra sense of pressure about needing to deliver on promises.”

Council President Kenyatta Johnson and Councilmembers Quetcy Lozada, Nina Ahmad and Anthony Phillips also offered their takes on community engagement and youth empowerment.

“The work that we do day in and day out allows us to engage with the wider public and listen to what the issues are in terms of how we shape policy and the most important things that we need to address,” Johnson told the students.

Classroom to caucus

The day of activities included parallel and cross-branch simulations, giving students assigned to a given group – whether that be the mayor’s cabinet, City Council, city stakeholders or the press corps – a chance to organize before coming together as a whole to tackle the question of the day.

The central question: How should Philadelphia balance short-term World Cup preparations with long-term investments, while ensuring that commitments to equity and human rights are implemented?

The activities encouraged participants to collaborate on how the city could take advantage of its World Cup opportunities – from tourism and temporary jobs to new investments and business development – while not forgetting about community concerns – affordability, housing, trash and illegal dumping, public transportation and more.

With a hypothetical budget of $60 million, the student leaders had to decide how to invest in tourism areas and youth programs, as well as other key issues such as housing, sanitation, and transit.

For Fagan, who rides public transit every day, SEPTA funding was a clear-cut focus.

“Our main priority is just prioritizing the budget, making sure the culture is there and we’re representing (the people) fairly well,” Fagan said. “Transportation is a big issue … That’s really the main focus right now, and just communicating and being transparent with the public.”

Pennsylvania programming

The nearly 100 students who participated on Wednesday are involved in the Greater Philadelphia YMCA’s Youth Civic Engagement program. Students have previously had the opportunity to do similar exercises at the state legislature in Harrisburg, but Wednesday’s events inside Philadelphia City Hall are a first.

“There’s been a long history of Y’s supporting youth civic engagement, and we have this organization where people have made some donations, and there’s a bit of a legacy fund that helps fund a state program,” Shaun Elliott, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia YMCA, told City & State. “This is our first shot at it (in Philadelphia) and I think it’s been really successful.”

Before the closing program, the student City Council debated how to move forward with the $60 million exercise, hearing testimony and recommendations from the individual stakeholder students before proposing and voting on their own legislation.

Lindsay Boyle, the Y’s director of civic engagement, explained that the members of the event’s leadership team were either elected by their fellow students or chosen by staff members, in part because of their experience in the youth civic engagement program. The remaining students were placed into roles in the cabinet, legislative staff, press or community advocates.

“The most important thing is that their voice matters and that they belong in these spaces,” Boyle told City & State. “It’s really incredible to see them in these different spaces, have them interact with the mayor and City Council members, and have those elected officials reinforce the idea that their thoughts and their other ideas and beliefs really matter.”

“There’s two things we want to do: teach kids about civic government and how it works, but also help them develop their own competencies, their own leadership,” Elliott said. “This is a great intersection of the two.”

Kailey Reinboth, a recent graduate of Boyertown Area Senior High School who will be studying communications and political science at Gettysburg College next year, said the experiences have made her a “more conscious citizen,” better able to understand civic responsibilities.

“Ultimately, we, the people, hold the power to make these decisions and make these changes in our communities, but we only have that power if we use it,” Reinboth, who serves as a NextGen Program Ambassador for the Greater Philadelphia YMCA, told reporters. “The youth aren’t the future; they are the present. We really need to enforce that – making sure that we’re not making change in the future – we are making change now.”

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Failure to communicate: How the job cut saga exposed School District of Philadelphia-City Council rift

Harrison Cann — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:56:54 -0400

For the School District of Philadelphia, the past month-plus has laid bare its fraught relationship with Philadelphia City Council.

Facing budget cuts – and potential school closures and job losses – Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and the school board have faced nonstop criticism from City Council and education advocates over its approach to addressing an uncertain fiscal future.

Now that the district has ended tumultuous weeks of will-they-or-won’t-they speculation over the fate of 340 classroom-based jobs by confirming those jobs will remain, it’s time to see how we got here – and what’s next:

SDP says cuts are on the way

Starting off on the wrong foot with contentious school board meetings in April, the school district, facing a $300 million structural deficit, attempted to right-size its budget, formalizing Watlington’s long-term spending plans that included closing 17 schools, renovating 169 others and eliminating 148 teaching jobs and 119 climate staff positions.

The meetings included shouting matches between city councilmembers – including Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Isaiah Thomas – and the school district board. Emotions ran so high that Councilmembers disrupted the board meeting discussion of the facilities plan, prompting the board to hold a closed-door session, where it completed its initial vote via video call.

“We are asking them to come back to the table,” Thomas said at the time. “Politics is a happy compromise. What you saw at the last meeting was our response to them walking away from the negotiating table.”

The board moved ahead with its facilities plan, which included the closures, putting political pressure on city lawmakers to play ball – or find another solution to boost school district funding.

Parker’s rideshare tax sparks intense debate

With the school district’s cuts in motion, leaders in City Hall put their heads together to come up with additional revenue sources to help fund the struggling district.

Parker had introduced a tax on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft in an attempt to remedy the situation. The initial proposal, floated at $0.20 per trip, was quickly upped to $1 per trip. Parker said the increase would generate $48 million for the school district in new recurring funds and insisted that, if approved, the tax would save the 340 school-based jobs on the district’s chopping block.

The mayor’s proposal was greeted with widespread skepticism, with councilmembers questioning whether the tax would make tech giants like Uber “pay their fair share,” as Parker pitched, or make trips in the city more expensive for residents.

Uber immediately pushed back on the proposal, launching a lobbying campaign against the tax, arguing it would raise prices, reduce demand and ultimately lower driver earnings in the city.

Conversely, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers called on City Council to pass the rideshare tax as the best option for saving classroom jobs.

“The academic, attendance, and enrollment progress made in our schools is real, and fragile. Philadelphia public schools have long been under-resourced and understaffed. Forcing schools to cut math teachers, reading tutors, special education assistants, and safety personnel because of a budget shortfall will absolutely worsen learning conditions for 198,000 students,” the educators union said in a statement in May, adding that Parker’s rideshare tax is the “only solution that has been proposed that provides both new and recurring dedicated funding.”

“Philadelphia public school students deserve the world. They deserve a District and City government that shows them that their futures are precious and important,” PFT added in the statement.

City Council President Kenyatta Johnson initially indicated he would be willing to use the rideshare tax to leverage an amended facilities plan from the school board.

On top of concerns about implementing a new tax, there were plenty of questions surrounding the district’s financial situation and whether the fates of the rideshare tax and district job cuts were tied together.

Meanwhile, Parker largely stayed mum following the school closure vote. She continued to tout the rideshare tax as a viable solution, but stayed out of the broader debate and seemed to be in lockstep with Watlington as he lobbied Council for support for the facilities plan.

School board passes $4.6B budget with classroom cuts

On May 28, the school board unanimously passed Watlington’s spending plan that included roughly $50 million in classroom cuts and $169 million in central-office cuts on top of the loss of 148 teaching positions and 117 climate positions. The $1.3 billion multiyear district plan, which would entail 17 school closures, 169 modernization projects and one new school building, went largely against the wishes of several councilmembers, who made their outrage over the closures loud and clear.

Watlington, who pointed to rising salaries, healthcare premiums and charter school payments as drivers of the budget cuts, said that no staff would be laid off, but teachers and school-based staff might be reassigned to other vacant positions across the district. At the time, he said if the $1-per-trip rideshare tax were to pass, the school district's position would be restored.

Facing substantial opposition from Councilmembers, school board members blamed state and federal underfunding for the district’s financial position.

City budget passes with alternative education funding

The city’s own budget negotiations were yet another turn in this school district saga.

After days of behind-closed-doors talks between the Parker administration and Council leadership, Council gave initial approval to a more than $7.1 billion budget – notably without Parker’s rideshare tax.

Instead, Council took an alternative route, allocating an additional $48 million to the district for the year through a grab bag of savings initiatives from a variety of departments, including $10 million from the Commerce Department’s contracts with outside venders and $9 million in savings from debt service.

“We heard loud and clear from Philadelphians that raising taxes is not an option right now. Residents are concerned about the cost of living – and with good reason. Many Philadelphians are struggling financially and, as a body, we could not in good conscience move forward with the proposed taxes,” City Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson said in a statement. “At the same time, we recognize we must address the deep, systemic and long-standing issues with the School District of Philadelphia and its structural deficit.”

Parker admitted that the tech companies “won Round 1” in the funding negotiations, but the battle won’t end with this year’s budget. She also assured that her administration and City Council are “not at war over public education” but that there continues to be a “disagreement here about who should pay.” The mayor added that she is awaiting a “second round” of negotiations.

District says cuts will still take place

Following passage of the city’s budget, Watlington sent a letter to city officials saying the school district’s cuts would go forward, explaining that his position was based on the additional funding for the school district being a one-time revenue and not a long-term fix.

The letter immediately sparked outrage from Councilmembers who said they did their part in finding funding for the district.

“For them to make a decision and say, ‘Oh, no, we’re not going to restore the cuts,’ it’s just short-sighted,”Johnson told reporters after the letter was sent. “The question should be to them: ‘What are you going to do with the $50 million? Why not save the positions?’ I think that’s what the parents should be asking the Philadelphia School District.”

Educators didn’t take the news well, either.

PFT President Arthur Steinberg said it was “deplorable and really absurd” that district leadership wouldn’t use the additional dollars to prevent the classroom cuts.

“Never once did they say, ‘If we only got it for one year, we’re not going to restore the cuts,’” Steinberg said at a June 5 press conference.

Watlington tried to defend the district’s position, saying the district has to “live within our means” and that he was clear about the need for funding to be recurring and not temporary.

Parker, Watlington announce deal to prevent job cuts

As the school year came to a close, the school district saga took one last turn, with Parker and Watlington announcing on June 10 that the 340 classroom-based jobs would not be cut.

At the press conference, the two stood alongside Johnson and school board president Reginald Streeter to share that they had identified existing funds to stave off the cuts.

“We have delivered for the School District of Philadelphia today,” Parker said, adding that they “made some tough decisions” to pledge $216 million over five years to keep funding the school district workers.

Parker and Johnson, who said they worked “around the clock” after budget approval to find additional dollars for the district, said lawmakers will look for new, recurring revenue sources in the future, but, as it stands, the funding would come from the city’s capital spending and other sources.

With the sudden reversal, the school district – which had moved forward with budget plans based on the cuts – must now work with PFT to restore the 340 positions.

Following the announcement, PFT said in a statement that the union is “thrilled and relieved to end this school year with optimism.”

Future funding in flux

Details of the city’s number-crunching and budget-tweaking reveal that much more work remains to secure the $216 million in funding committed to the district.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, if the dollars aren't identified by July 1, 2027, the city will be on the hook for the additional funding. Without offering specifics, Parker said her administration has already identified the potential funding options that will be reflected in the five-year plan when it is up for approval next month with the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority.

Parker said potential dollars could come from from the city’s capital budget, refinancing the borrowing related to her signature housing program, Housing Opportunities Made Easy and, city lawmakers hope, additional state funds from the budget in Harrisburg.

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6 bills passed by PA lawmakers this week

Justin Sweitzer — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 09:00:00 -0400

Lawmakers in both chambers of the General Assembly returned to Harrisburg this week for a busy and productive week of session. No topic was off-limits, as lawmakers voted on bills addressing AI-generated content, marijuana regulations, campaign finance requirements – and even the Golden Girls. Below, City & State takes a look at six bills approved by state lawmakers this week in the lead-up to the commonwealth’s June 30 budget deadline.

Senate Bill 806: Disclosures on AI-generated advertising

Senate lawmakers set their sights on AI-generated content this week, passing legislation to require “clear and conspicuous” disclosures on AI-generated content used in sales and advertising. Senate Bill 806, which was approved by the Senate with a 48-2 vote, prohibits advertisers from using synthetic content in a way that creates a “false consumer perception” about goods or services without adequate disclosures. The disclosures required under the proposal must state that the ad's content was created or modified using AI. The bill’s prime sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Nick Pisciottano, said the state’s laws must keep pace with rapid technological advancements. “This legislation provides a safeguard that promotes honesty and protects people from scams and false advertising,” he said in a statement.

Senate Bill 908: Expanding Pennsylvania’s Prevailing Wage Act

In a 37-13 vote, Senate lawmakers passed legislation that would expand the state’s Prevailing Wage Act to cover off-site custom fabrication work for public construction projects. The state’s Prevailing Wage Act requires construction workers to be paid a base wage – plus benefits – for construction projects funded by taxpayer dollars. The bill, Senate Bill 908, was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Frank Farry and Democratic state Sen. Christine Tartaglione. Tartaglione said in a statement that the legislation would close a loophole in state law. “This bill restores the spirit of the law by recognizing that custom fabrication is essential to modern construction and deserves the same prevailing wage standards as on-site work,” she said.

Senate Bill 1150: Strengthening the Sunshine Act

In response to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling from last November, Senate lawmakers this week approved legislation to clarify when local government entities can add items to their meeting agendas under the Sunshine Act. “Last November, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that agencies can add agenda items and take up business with a simple majority vote, even when those items are not included on the publicly posted agenda,” state Sen. Pat Stefano, the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 1150, said on the Senate floor this week. “That means decisions involving significant topics, from taxes to budgets to contracts, could move forward without any advanced public notice.” Stefano said his bill would clarify exceptions for the 24-hour notice requirement outlined in the Sunshine Act, noting that the exceptions should “remain narrow and should not become a loophole that undermines public notice altogether.” The bill passed the Senate with a unanimous vote.

House Bill 497 & House Bill 1262: Updating Pennsylvania’s campaign finance laws

Lawmakers in the state House approved two campaign finance-related bills this week, including House Bill 1262, which would require all campaign finance reports and statements to be filed electronically through the Pennsylvania Department of State. However, the bill does include a “technological hardship” exemption for filers who are unable to file electronically due to a disability or lack of internet access. The House also approved House Bill 497, legislation from Democratic state Rep. Joe Webster that would bar foreign corporations from spending money to influence Pennsylvania elections. The legislation prohibits “foreign-influenced corporations” from making expenditures in support or in opposition to political candidates and ballot measures.

House Bill 2109: The Golden Girls Law

In what has officially been dubbed the “Golden Girls Law,” the House voted this week to approve House Bill 2109, which seeks to prevent local governments from placing limits on the number of unrelated roommates who can live together. Under the bill, local governments could still limit occupancy based on health and safety standards. In a memo to colleagues, the bill’s prime sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Tarik Khan, said the bill will “expand housing options, help people afford to stay in their communities and modernize housing policies.”

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