House Debates Legislation Defining Nonprofit Status

Budget Update

We are still in the thick of budget negotiations. The House approved the budget last week on a party-line vote, a budget that I feel doubled down on significant cuts to education and social services. I strongly disagreed with this budget, spoke out against it in the House chamber, and voted “no.”  You can watch my comments on the budget here.

There is still much legislative work to be done in the coming days. While the budget has passed the House, it still must be approved by the Senate and signed by the governor. I am also hopeful that we will also be voting on a comprehensive transportation bill before the close of budget season on June 30.

You can follow me on Facebook or Twitter to get daily updates: @repmolchany on Twitter & Rep. Erin C Molchany on Facebook.

Senate Bill 4 – Constitutional Amendment
This week, an important bill on nonprofit tax exemption came up in the House. S.B. 4 would allow the legislature to decide the standards by which tax exemption is determined in Pennsylvania, a responsibility which is now the purview of the judiciary. This legislation is a backdoor attempt to make it harder for cities and towns to challenge the tax exemption of large institutional nonprofits. You can read a story about this legislation here.

When local communities are struggling to balance their budgets, the last thing we can afford to do is give a free ride to massive mega-charities that are certainly not operating free of a private profit motive.

Before any legislation is ratified to become a new constitutional amendment, the legislature will have to vote again on the same bill in 2015 and then voters must cast their ballot in favor of it.