Tag: Vincent Hughes

While Pennsylvania Labor Secretary Pushes Minimum Wage Hike, Few Workers Make Only $7.25 an Hour

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) officials testified before state senators Tuesday, requesting an increase in the department’s budget as well as a hike in the commonwealth’s minimum wage. 

Governor Josh Shapiro’s Fiscal Year 2023-24 spending proposal envisions an 11.4-percent rise in L&I’s allocation to $89.8 million. The agency’s acting secretary Nancy Walker also asked lawmakers to consider backing the governor’s goal to raise the Keystone State’s legal wage floor to $15 per hour. 

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Pennsylvania Public Defenders Hopeful as Momentum for Funding Increases Grow

The Center Square

The governor’s proposed budget may provide a boost to a bill working its way through the Senate that would fund public defender offices and bring the state into compliance with constitutional mandates.

The current version of Senate Bill 371 – sponsored by Sens. Lisa Baker, R-Dallas, and Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia – would establish an Indigent Defense Advisory Committee to determine county standards and a grant program to fund services. Both would fall under the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

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Gov. Shapiro Emboldens Pennsylvania Death Penalty Abolitionists

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s recent declaration that he will sign no death warrants is emboldening lawmakers who want to abolish executions in the Keystone State. 

To that end, state Representative Chris Rabb (D-Philadelphia) is circulating a memorandum asking colleagues to cosponsor a measure he plans to offer ending the state’s death penalty. 

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Pennsylvania Senate Democrats Push for Public-School Funding Increase

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Senate Minority Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia) announced Monday he aims to achieve the largest public-school funding boost in state history this year.

Basic education funding has already seen a record-setting four-percent spending increase for the current fiscal year, with $7.07 billion in state-taxpayer dollars now going to public schools. (About twice that amount also gets allotted to schools annually from local property-tax revenues.)

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