The Pennsylvania general assembly has two issues the state supreme court ordered them to vote on this fall: skill games and new sentencing guidelines for people convicted of second degree murder.
With the midterms approaching, legislative leadership is unsure if either will see progress.
“I would think that the legislative activity will be light at best,” said Rep. Jesse Topper (R), the minority house leader.
Democrats and Republicans want to legalize skill games, because they want to tax them.
“The resistance that we’ve gotten back from the other side of the aisle hasn’t been ‘these are ideas about changing the facets of your bill’. It has all been, ‘these are our ideas about how we’re going to spend the money’,” said Sen. Chris Gebhard, a Republican who sponsored a middle-of-the-road bill on the topic this session.
Democrats want the funds linked to public transit. Republicans want, at minimum, something for roads and bridges, and…
“We would be open to that as long as transit has commensurate accountability. We think that SEPTA has come a long way. Crime is down 37%. We’ve got to ensure that accountability continues,” said Sen. Joe Pittman (R), senate majority leader involved in negotiations with the other chambers and parties.
In the past, Democratic leadership have called on the senate to vote on a skill game bill to legitimize negotiations. Last year, Senate Republicans had an internal skiff over tax rates and regulatory oversight for the games.
Right now in Pennsylvania, there are no laws about prison time for someone convicted of second degree murder– the previous law with a mandatory life sentence was ruled unconstitutional in March.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court gave the legislature until July to create a new law.
Both chambers passed bills this summer, but could not reach an agreement by deadline. Republicans want a 35 year mandatory minimum, Democrats want the Sentencing Commission to come up with rules.
With no law, existing inmates (who got mandatory life sentences instead of a judge/jury assigning a prison sentence based on facts of the case) can request resentencing trials.
Courts are also delaying decisions on active second degree murder cases, because there is no Commonwealth standard. If no new law is made, sentencing would be left to the preference of individual judges.
“Unfortunately, the both sides, the house and the senate, just haven’t sat around the table to to hammer out our our bill. It really, I think, is close. We can negotiate our differences,” said Rep. Tim Briggs, the Democratic chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
He worries though that with no compromise, something might not be reached within the next month.