LIBERTYINDEX2012 TIER 2

Ten Tier 2 Acts enacted in 2012

25 POINTS ADDED TO, OR DEDUCTED FROM, GRADE

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ACT 10 of 2012

SB 1375 UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

The Liberty Index scores Act 10 of 2012 Tier 2 (Moderate Impact on Liberty) AGAINST LIBERTY and AGAINST THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because its more significant for what it did not do (did not reform UC program that is heavily in debt). What it did do was make PA eligible for federal benefits. While still bad (PA residents pay federal taxes, and the federal benefits represent deficit spending), if they didnt make the changes, PA taxpayers would still be paying for the federal UC benefits for other states. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIAIONS FISCAL NOTE The 17,000 impacted claimants would collect an estimated $30,000,000 in federally-funded extended benefits over the five week period. Extending unemployment benefits imposes costs and misallocates resources away from job creating, productive businesses. It may sound harsh to some but the impact of forcing people who do work to pay those who dont is anti-growth lowering the standard of living for all and depriving those who want to be productive from resources. Tier 2 Against Liberty A YEA vote deducts 25 points from grade. * Act 11 of 2012 HB 1-294 Public Utility Code

The Liberty Index scores Act 11 of 2012 Tier 2 (Moderate Impact on Liberty) AGAINST LIBERTY and AGAINST THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because it adds mandated costs, a tax, to users without choice or competition. FISCAL NOTE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONSE This legislation adds a new Subchapter B providing for a distribution system improvement charge (DSIC) for water, wastewater, natural gas and electric. The DSIC will be capped at 5% of the amount billed to customers under applicable rates for wastewater, natural gas and electric utilities. A DSIC for a water utility is capped at 7.5%. Additional regulations mean additional cost and misallocate resources from job creating, productive savings and investment; all costs of government are paid by productive people and profitable businesses. The Legislature and Governor have little or no business experience or expertise with managing businesses; more regulations without any measurement of efficacy or success is unlikely to be effective and likely to be counter- productive inhibiting job creation and businesses growth lowering the standard of living for all. Tier 2 Against Liberty A YEA vote deducts 25 points from grade. *

Act 105 of 2012 July 5 HB 1363 Public School Code of 1949 relates certain circumstances in which strikes are prohibited, continuing professional development and program of continuing professional development READ MORE FISCAL NOTE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS The Liberty Index scores Act 105 of 2012 as Tier 2 (Moderate Impact on Liberty) FOR LIBERTY AND FOR THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because it makes administrative changes that centralizes administration of school district in Harrisburg. This legislation amends the Public School Code to provide that one year after a contract impasse, the Secretary of Education may request a public hearing in the school district of impasse. It requires the hearing to include testimony from the school board, administration, employee organization and any additional party requested by Secretary. Requires the public have 30 days to submit written testimony. It further provides that testimony may be received from experts commenting on the social, emotional and educational well being of the students

in the school district. It also requires the secretary to issue a report on recommendations regarding the impasse 90 days following the hearing. This legislation would also require the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee provide an interim report on the study being conducted on the costs and benefits of the continuing professional development program, which was authorized in Act 24 of 2011 and requires the study to be due on November 30, 2012. READ MORE FISCAL NOTE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE Tier 2 For Liberty A YEA vote adds 25 points to grade.

Act 121 of 2012 J establishes the Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority and the Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Fund. The Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Authority (Authority) would be an independent agency of the Commonwealth whose board of directors would consist of 15 appointees. The primary responsibilities of the Authority would be the following: READ MORE FISCAL NOTE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE The Liberty Index scores Act 121 of 2012 Tier 2 (Moderate Impact on Liberty) AGAINST LIBERTY and AGAINST THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because it adds more bureaucracy, more regulation and more expense to the operation of hospitals, doctors practices and to the delivery of medical services. The 253 person General Assembly has little, if any, expertise or experience in the delivery of medical services. Doctors, nurses and health care providers have that expertise and experience and are sensitive to costs of delivering quality medical services at an affordable price. Tier 2 Against Liberty A YEA vote deducts 25 points from grade.

Act 131 of 2012 SB 1301 General Local Government Code - Cities and counties of the first class, administration and procedure The Liberty Index scores Act 1310f 2012 as Tier 2 (Moderate Impact on Liberty) FOR LIBERTY and THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because it makes administrative and procedure changes that directly impact The Forgotten Taxpayer. FISCAL NOTE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE NO FISCAL IMPACT ON COMMONWEALTH This legislation allows Philadelphia to enact homestead property exclusions. The new applicability section states that Subchapter F will apply to cities and counties of the first class and to school districts of the first class. The legislation would: Change the timing for assessments for tax year 2014 and beyond by requiring that assessments are completed before tax rates are established. Require that real estate taxes for tax year 2013 are based on values certified for tax year 2011. Delay the implementation of Philadelphia's recently announced project to overhaul the City's property tax system, known as the Actual Value Initiative (AVI), until the 2014 tax year. Tier 2 For Liberty A YEA vote adds 25 points to grade. *

Act 138 of 2012 SB 1528 adds bureaucratic requirements to the cost of delivering medical services Occupational Therapy Practice Act including continuing education and mandatory drug counseling READ MORE FISCAL NOTE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE The Liberty Index scores Act 138 of 2012 (Tier 2 Moderate Impact on Liberty) AGAINST LIBERTY AND AGAINST THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because it micromanaging a profession and because the mandatory insurance requirement is a benefit to Trial Lawyers who want an insurance company to sue and a benefit to insurance companies who now have a new mandated customer. The Liberty Index thinks carrying insurance is a good idea. However, opposes the mandate.

Additionally, there is no explanation why the administering Board which is already well funded needs more taxpayer money, see Appropriation Act 3A of 2012 June 13 SB 1474 Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs which appropriates a total of $45,733,000 from restricted revenue accounts in the General Fund to the Department of State. This legislation would take effect July 1, 2012, or immediately, whichever is later. Tier 2 Against Liberty A YEA vote deducts 25 points from grade. *

Act 144 of 2012 HB 728 provides for multiple emergency shut-off devices for gasoline pumps located at attended self-service gasoline stations READ MORE FISCAL NOTE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE The Liberty Index scores Act 144 of 2012 Tier 2(Moderate Impact on Liberty) AGAINST LIBERTY AND AGAINST THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because it raises taxes without any measurable benefit to general welfare and because there is a bureaucracy in place to regulate gas stations. Is it appropriate, cost effective or a good use of its time for the General Assembly and the Governor, personally, to be involved in what kind of safety signage a gas station should have? What expertise do they have that the real world business people do not have?

Was the cost to the consumer or to consumer-producers considered in this regulatory intervention into the market? Is the General Assembly able to predict or foresee the impact and effects of their intervention into the market? Very few, if any, members of the General Assembly have ever owned or operated any kind of business and do not have any expertise greater than that of the business owner or business operator and there is no indication that this detailed, minute administrative mandate imposed on a business is solving a real world problem or does anything more than misallocate resources. The mandate is, of course, paid for by the businesses and those who need, use and want its product. What is the purpose of a regulatory bureaucracy if the General Assembly has to intervene at this minutely, detailed level. Tier 2 Against Liberty A YEA vote deducts 25 points from grade

Act 153 of 2012 Oct 24 HB 1682 Land Banks A land bank is a governmental or nonprofit entity that acquires, holds, and manages tax foreclosed, abandoned properties whose main purpose is to return vacant, abandoned and tax delinquent properties to productive re-use in accordance with local and regional plans for smart growth and development. READ MORE FISCAL NOTE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS The Liberty Index scores Act 153 of 2012 Tier 2 (Moderate Impact on Liberty) AGAINST LIBERTY AND AGAINST THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because it creates another government bureaucracy and overtly legalizes the political allocation of resources, in particular, urban land. There is no reason to think this law will accomplish anything present law, if enforced, could not except to benefit the political incumbents and combine political power with economic power at the expense of the public. There is, also, the Missouri real world case study of politicizing accumulation of vacant, abandoned and tax delinquent property. Why would the General Assembly adopt a law that doesnt work? Let us see how this plays out. READ MORE Pennsylvanias Copies Missouri's Failed Land Banking Policy APRIL 3, 2012 Commonwealth Foundation Elizabeth Stelle and Activists Wary of City's Land Bank Legislation 6 March 2012 Philadelphia Weekly Randy LoBasso and John Kromer 23 March 2012 A Philadelphia Land Bank Why We Need to Get it Right Tier 2 Against Liberty A YEA vote deducts 25 points from grade.

Act 157 of 2012 HB 1813 Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act adds a new program to provide land reclamation financial guarantees to qualified operators as an alternative to satisfy surface mine reclamation bonding obligations. Furthermore, the bill provides that up to $2 million to be collected from the Gross Receipts Tax on sales of electric energy may be appropriated annually by the General Assembly to the department for transfer to the Reclamation Fee Operation & Maintenance Trust Account to supplement the account. This transfer would begin in fiscal year 2013-14 and continue for a period of twenty-five years until June 30, 2039 when the authority for such transfers would expire. READ MORE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

The Liberty Index scores Act 157 of 2012 Tier2 (Moderate Impact on Liberty) AGAINST LIBERTY AND AGAINST THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because financial guarantees add more liabilities on The Forgotten Taxpayer and because loan guarantees are a form of corporate welfare, the politicized allocation of resources, to a politically favored beneficiary. Loan guarantees are targeted subsidies that interfere with the Free Market and politically allocate resources by government/collectivist mandate. The General Assembly has little or no practical business expertise and the unintended and unforeseeable consequences may do more harm than good. The General Assembly does not measure the impact and results of its actions.

Who pays for this? Tier 2 Against Liberty A YEA vote deducts 25 points from grade. *

Act 161 of 2012 HB 1856 Cosmetology Licensing READ MORE FISCAL NOTE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS The Liberty Index scores Act 161 of 2012 Tier 2 (Moderate Impact on Liberty) AGAINST LIBERTY AND AGAINST THE FORGOTTEN TAXPAYER because it restricts an individuals ability to use his or her talents for commercial benefit to themselves and others who want their services. The level and detail of these regulations are disproportionate to the goal intended. The General Assembly has no special expertise or experience that qualifies it to mandate detailed, specific and minute administrative directives to the Executives bureaucracy which delegated to itself the obligation to develop special expertise to mandate regulations. The vast bureaucracy of the General Assembly is micromanaging another government bureaucracy as well as interfering with private commercial contractual relationship between and among affected individuals, who are all consenting adults. Furthermore very few, if any, members of the General Assembly have ever owned or operated any kind of business and do not have any expertise greater than that of the business owner or business operator and there is no indication that this detailed, minute administrative mandate imposed on a business is solving a real world problem or does anything more than misallocate resources. The mandate is, of course, paid for by the businesses and those who need, use and want its product. What is the purpose of a regulatory bureaucracy if the General Assembly has to intervene at this minutely, detailed level.

READ MORE Who Should Need the Government's Permission to Work? MAY 16, 2012 Commonwealth Foundation Elizabeth Stelle What's more dangerous, an incompetent barber or incompetent emergency medical worker? Most people would say and EMT, but a barber has to undergo almost nine times the hours of training as an EMT before they can get a license to practice in Pennsylvania. The Institute for Justice this week released a new report looking at occupational licensing requirements across the 50 states for mid- and low-income jobs. They discovered dramatic occupational licensing inconsistencies that undermine the public safety argument used by

licensing proponents. For instance, only three states license interior designers and only five states license shampooers. Tier 2 Against Liberty A YEA vote deducts 25 points from grade