Government news & views with dan debone

One of the recent additions to the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce is weekly and/or at times daily legislative updates on a local, state and federal level. Our new benefit to members will include key articles, new bills or pending legislation and much more to ensure you and your organization are made aware of various items that could help and unfortunately at times create concern. As a former government relations specialist who spent most of his career in front of the legislature at various levels, which included monitoring and interpretation of legislation, as well as years of advocacy, I'm excited to offer this benefit and experience to our members. Most importantly, I want to ensure your best interests, your voices and concerns are being heard throughout a local, state & federal level. Also, I encourage you to reach out to me with your concerns, questions and more as we increase our level of legislative advocacy through the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce. Please feel free to call me at 724-834-2900 or email me at dan@westmorelandchamber.com.

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Tuesday  November 30th   (3  Key Items for Review) 
1. State offering more tax credits, fewer grants for businesses
2. Lawmakers preparing skill games bill​
3. Wolf announces hospitality industry grant awards. 

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1. State offering more tax credits, fewer grants for businesses. Pennsylvania state government has been increasingly moving to offer tax breaks to help businesses rather than offering them grants as financial assistance, a new report by the state Independent Fiscal Office shows. But the fastest growing segment of tax breaks are those aimed at rewarding businesses that donate to organizations that provide vouchers for private school students, the report found. In Fiscal Year 2020-21, Pennsylvania used or awarded $623 million in tax credits aimed at promoting economic development, an increase of $71 million from the previous year, according to the IFO. By contrast, Pennsylvania spent $389 million in that year on state grants or appropriations for economic development projects. That's a decrease of nearly $27 million from the previous year. The Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and related Educational Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) is the largest state economic development incentive of 46 programs listed in the IFO report. EITC provided $179.5 million in tax credits last year to help scholarship organizations in private and public schools and other organizations like libraries, museums and pre-K programs while OSTC tax credits provided $53.6 million in scholarships targeted to helping students in low-achieving schools attend another public school outside of their district or private school. CLICK HERE to read more.

2. Lawmakers preparing skill games bill. How might the state differentiate games of skill from games of chance if lawmakers ever get around to formally legalizing the devices? A pair of Republican lawmakers from Lycoming County announced earlier this month that they are introducing legislation that would replace the gray market for games of skill and formally establish that those devices which can demonstrate that they are indeed, games of skill, can be operated and taxed by the state. The legislation hasn't been formally introduced but draft language provided to Capitolwire sheds light on their proposal. The legislation would direct the Department of Revenue to establish a program requiring game operators to submit a report "in complete forensic detail by an independent testing laboratory" approved by the state to determine that the games are games of skill in order for them to be allowed on the market. That legislation also specifies what measures must be considered to determine whether a device is a game of skill rather than a game of chance like a slot machine. CLICK HERE to read more

3. Wolf announces hospitality industry grant awards. Governor Tom Wolf announced Monday that 5,860 businesses received funding support this year through the COVID-19 Hospitality Industry Relief Program (CHIRP), helping to protect and preserve this vital industry in Pennsylvania. The funding was made possible by Act 1 of 2021, which was signed into law by Wolf in February after being unanimously approved by both chambers of the General Assembly. "We developed the CHIRP program to provide immediate relief to the commonwealth's restaurants and hospitality businesses recovering from the pandemic," said Gov. Wolf. "These businesses and their employees made sacrifices for their communities during one of the most unprecedented times we have ever lived through. It was a major priority for my administration to offer quick assistance through trusted, local partners that truly understood the needs of their area's businesses." The funding is a portion of $145 million directed to support businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The commonwealth worked with all 67 counties to administer the funding through one or more designated Community Economic Development Organizations (CEDO) or Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI). Grants were awarded in $5,000 increments with a $50,000 maximum. CLICK HERE to see the list of grant recipients.