PA Lawmakers Return After Summer Recess
By Tony Romeo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After a break lasting more than two months, Pennsylvania lawmakers return to the Capitol today to find the same issues they couldn't resolve in the spring sitting at the top of their agenda.
Capitol insiders continue to handicap the chances for passage this fall of the three big items on Governor Corbett's agenda: transportation funding, privatization of liquor sales, and pension reform.
Ordinarily, Franklin and Marshall College political analyst Terry Madonna would expect there would be even less of a chance for action on those items now than there was in the spring.
But the difference, he said, is the interest in new funding for transportation.
"There is growing and huge pressure to do mass transit, roads and bridges. not just from voters but from organized labor, the chambers of commerce and other business groups," Madonna said.
For that reason, Madonna believes that with regard to the big three agenda items, transportation has the best shot this fall, but he still rates the chances at less than 50-50.
