Pension bill will have to wait

Lawmakers seeking reform run out of time as they tackle other legislation

Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG — Yes to more six-packs of beer on retail shelves. No to pension reform.

That appeared to be the state of play shortly before midnight Wednesday as the Republican-controlled Legislature raced to push through key legislation before the end of its two-year session. Senate GOP leaders, looking tired and exasperated, declared as officially dead a bill that would have made controversial changes to the state’s debt-plagued pension funds.

“We are exposed,” said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, who has championed the issue. “The taxpayers of Pennsylvania are exposed.”

One proposal that was being positioned for a final vote: a bill that would allow beer distributors to sell sixpacks, growlers, and single cans of beer instead of being limited to cases, 12-packs, and kegs. The measure also calls for an assortment of other changes as well, from allowing mead at farmer’s markets to allowing hard liquor to be consumed at stadiums that already sell beer.

The Senate, which extended its session beyond 11 p.m., was planning to vote on it before it breaks, said Jennifer Kocher, spokeswoman for Republican senators. If the chamber approves it — as it has a similar version in the past — it would go to Gov. Tom Wolf for his signature and mark another historic shift away from Pennsylvania’s notoriously stringent liquor laws.

But the mood in the Capitol was grim as it became clear late in the evening that the legislators would be unable to deliver on a pension reform bill.

Any bill not approved and sent to Mr. Wolf before the end of the session will die and have to be reintroduced when the Legislature reconvenes early next year.

At a news conference, Mr. Corman said he was told the House could not cobble together enough votes to approve the pension bill, and criticized Mr. Wolf for providing “zero votes” from his party to help get it across the legislative finish line.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, said the chamber was three votes shy of getting the 102 votes needed to approve it, and that all the support came from the GOP.

For his part, Mr. Wolf, a Democrat, has said he would support a “reasonable” pension reform plan, but never committed to the specific one the Legislature was considering this week. The pension proposal had called for new employees, starting in 2018, to select from three options, all requiring participation in varying levels of 401(k)-style plans.

Hanging in the balance Wednesday night was legislation that would impose harsher penalties for animal abuse. “Libre’s law,” named for a Boston terrier puppy that made national headlines after being found sick and emaciated at a Lancaster County farm, would make it a third-degree felony to seriously injure a domestic animal or zoo animals.

The measure is before the House, which late Wednesday decided to add a voting day and will reconvene at 9 a.m. today.

Unlikely to survive the end-of-session cutoff was legislation to temporarily reinstate a mandate that casinos pay millions of dollars to their host communities — a requirement that had been struck down by the state’s highest court.