There's a coup going on in Pennsylvania

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Elizabeth H.C. McLaughlin (she/her)
@ECMcLaughlin
·
Jul 7, 2022
There is some absolutely bonkers shit happening in the dead of night in the Pennsylvania Senate right now thanks to the PA GOP. They are forcing through a vote on a PA Constitutional Amendment that would declare a fertilized egg a person. Bye bye IVF & abortion. Miscarry? Prison.

Stephen Caruso
@StephenJ_Caruso
The Pa. Senate has preemptively waived a rule banning votes after 11 p.m., and now is holding a committee meeting on an omninus constitional amendment including voter ID and language that "the policy of Pa. is to protect the life of every unborn child from conception to birth."

Elizabeth H.C. McLaughlin (she/her)
@ECMcLaughlin
·
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They’re also shoving through a voter ID amendment too.

Garbage. Hot trash. Waived a rule that said they had to stop debate at 11 pm ET to keep going.

This country is an absolute mess.
9:13 PM · Jul 7, 2022

[LonePirate]

1. Surely something more than a majority legislative vote is needed to enshrine these, right?

[Jose Garcia]

22. It requires a majority vote of both chambers of the legislature

in two consecutive sessions, after which it must be approved by the voters in a referendum.

[tirebiter]

3. Wolf won't sign them.

And they’re already losing the Mastriano v Shapiro gubenatorial race. Keep up the awareness, regardless.

[Qutzupalotl]

4. The governor can't veto a constitutional amendment.

This is a naked power grab.

On edit: it won't take effect immediately:

Link to tweet

Just want to add here: Constitutional amendments in PA become law by passing the Legislature two sessions in a row (2021-22, 2023-24) then getting put up for a referendum. Assuming this measure passes Senate and House now, than the earliest it could reach voters is spring 2023

[dchill]

5. Asshole Nazi Xtian Fascists.

Welcome to Pennsylvania - the New Dominion.

[PortTack]

7. It will never pass the voters to become an amendment

[Amishman]

15. yup, these are publicity stunts, nothing more

Both have essentially zero chance of passing once on the ballot.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

23. That depends on who is allowed to vote, and who counts the votes.

Radical Republican extremists are at work in legislatures and courts to choose their voters and increase their power to override election results.

[AZLD4Candidate]

6. "the policy of Pa. is to protect the life of every unborn child from conception to birth."

Life before birth, life after death. . .in between, who cares?

As Carlin said: IF you're pre-born you're fine. If you're pre-school, you're fucked.

[calimary]

8. And once that baby's born, the GOP checks out completely.

It’s not so much about the unborn as it is about subjugating women. If they cared about the newborn, they’d be pushing and passing every kind of aid program to help support new mothers, baby’s needs of every kind, aid to families and single heads-of-households, daycare and pre-school programs, school breakfasts and lunches, health care for babies, new moms, toddlers and pre-schoolers, and more.

[arthritisR_US]

9. You luv, nailed it!

[Nevilledog]

21. Your post, in picture form

[obamanut2012]

12. This also means child support needs to start as soon as a pregnancy is confirmed

[calimary]

24. Yep,

EVERY ONE of their anti-woman laws needs to have something like this attached.

[modrepub]

10. More Context Here

The Commonwealth budget hasn't been passed yet. It's 8 days overdue and the Senate is F-ing around with nonsense. Republican priorities at their best.

[Deminpenn]

18. Dems voted to allow working past the legislative COB time

to work on the budget. Costa said they expected to reconvene at 9AM today to resume budget talks, but then Rs used the COB deadline extention to take up the this anti-abortion and voter ID bill and pass it.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2022/07/08/pennsylvania-senate-republicans-advance-constitutional-amendment-to-restrict-abortion-and-call-for-voter-ids-roe-v-wade/stories/202207080073

[modrepub]

26. Why Am I Not Surprised

Dummies. And that's why Republicans continue to divert $ away from blue areas of the state to fund highways in the middle of nowhere all in the guise of economic stimulation. Total BS.

State Dems better figure out how to play hard ball or they will continue to get their clocks rung (and we will continue to allow tax revenue to be diverted to areas of the state with shrinking populations/tax bases).

[Deminpenn]

11. PA doesn't have a mechanism for referendums

That's why the Rs are using the constitutional amendment process. The bill has to be passed in two consecutive legislative sessions before it can be on the ballot. The way the Rs work it, is they pass a bill with the second session passing it timed to coincide with a low turnout primary election where Rs voting usually outnumber Ds. That would be the case here assuming they can pass the bill again next session. But abortion is a hot button issue for both Ds and Rs now and the risk is the primary might be a very high turnout.

The problem for the Rs here is the 2022 legislative redistricting created more competitive districts although the state senate, because it's smaller (50), fared better than the state house (203). We'll see what happens in November.

The last time the legislature tried this midnight gambit was giving themselves a pay raise which completely blew up in their faces in 2005. Voters were mad! The first election after that was a judicial retention where Russell Nigro actually lost the retention vote, something that never before happened or since. Lots of other legislators lost re-election bids, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Pennsylvania_General_Assembly_pay_raise_controversy

I can see this particular action blowing up on the Rs, too.

[Amishman]

16. only tangentially related, they passed an amendment a few years ago for property tax reform

and absolutely nothing has happened since, the amendment has been ignored.

[Deminpenn]

17. That never made it on to the ballot, iirc

Anyway, the legislature would have to pass this amendment again next year for it to get on the 2023 ballot. If there's high turnout in the midterms fueled by opposition to SCOTUS overturning Roe, my bet is the amendment will die a quiet death.

[Amishman]

19. It was on the ballot five years ago and passed

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/pa-property-tax-amendment-voting-results-2017-20171107.html

Nothing happened since

[modrepub]

27. Be Careful What You Ask For

Just about everyone in this state hates the property tax. I get it. But there's never been any viable alternative put forth that wouldn't, IMO, exasperate the already unfair distribution of general tax revenues in this state.

If you're for increasing the sales tax to replace part of the property tax, then by default big (democratic) counties where there are naturally more economic transactions will be making up a larger share of the collected taxes.

From the 2020 Census:

Elk County: Pop = 30,783
Retail Sales Per Capita = $12,802
6% Sales Tax Est. = $2.4M

Montgomery County: Pop = 860,578
Retail Sales Per Capita = $22,150
6% Sales Tax Est. = $1,144M

I don't think a sales tax (increase) in Elks County would ever be able to fully fund their school districts. Most school district's yearly budgets are much more than $2.4M/yr. So I assume counties like Montgomery would have some of their tax monies diverted to Elk to support their school district.

And another thing, if you're local school district can't make it work with whatever funding formula the Harrisburg bureaucrats concoct, it's tough sh-t or you'll have to generate it via local property taxes.

Yea this is a quick and dirty analysis but unless there's some magic BS money tree going out in PA that politicians know about it's the same story across the state. Too many parts of PA have shrinking populations/tax bases and the rest of us get to sponsor them. The folks in Harrisburg won't save you (if anything, they'll rob you blind). Until we recognize the problem and directly confront it, we're just kicking the can down the road.

[Samrob]

13. It's like the GOP wants to punish you for having sex. nt

[tanyev]

14. And after they're born, they won't do jack sh*t to protect them.

[ecstatic]

20. I hope our side is staying up late too.

We're in a six-alarm fire. 😥

[calimary]

25. Indeed. AT LEAST a six-alarm fire. But probably a lot bigger than even that.