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Stephen Caruso

@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social

Pennsylvania Capitol Reporter for Spotlight PA | Yankee Fan | Die Gedanken Sind Frei | scaruso[at]spotlightpa[dot]org

857 Posts3717 Follower805 Folgt
Danielle Ohl@dtohl.bsky.social · last wk.

and lest you think I am only being mad in the newspaper with Republicans spreading disinfo and playing politics, I am being mad at Democrats too because what the absolute [redacted] is this

a text message from the House Democratic Campaign Committee that says: Why did your State Rep Alec Ryncavage vote to let criminals out of prison? PA's Attorney General called it "a system that will likely overwhelmingly benefit murderers and sexual offenders, while sidelining victims at every turn." Reply ORDER to tell Alec Ryncavage to stand up for law and order and protect victims instead of criminals! Paid for by PA HDCC. Stop to quit.
Danielle Ohl@dtohl.bsky.social · last wk.

So, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's ruling on felony murder is now in effect. Find out if it means that bloodthirsty murders now prowl the streets, as implied by many a legislator over the past couple weeks. (Spoiler: It does not!)

Danielle Ohl@dtohl.bsky.social · last wk.

So, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's ruling on felony murder is now in effect. Find out if it means that bloodthirsty murders now prowl the streets, as implied by many a legislator over the past couple weeks. (Spoiler: It does not!)

No fix for PA's second-degree murder sentencing. What’s next?

State lawmakers are no closer to reaching a compromise on PA’s unconstitutional sentencing for second-degree murders. Here's what it means for current cases.

spotlightpa.org

Danielle Ohl@dtohl.bsky.social · last wk.

I'll be in Scranton for an in-person event hosted by Spotlight PA! We'll be discussing my reporting on the mental health system, and hearing from people directly affected. Please join us!

Digital poster for the event says the following: The Cost of Failing A live storytelling event on the past, present, and future of Pennsylvania's mental health care systems. - Discover mental health resources - Participate in interactive exhibits - Connect with your community - Hear others' experiences July 30, 2026 5pm - 7:30 p.m. Albright Memorial Library, 500 Vine St., Scranton, PA 18509 Hosted by Danielle Ohl, Spotlight PA Register now at spotlightpa.org/events
Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · last wk.

State Reps. David Rowe (R., Union) and Josh Bashline (R., Clarion) want to "establish reasonable safeguards" for automated surveillance tech, including requiring warrants to search for an individual, limit data retention, and require signage for some automated systems.

Protecting the 4th Amendment - Establishing Safeguards for Automated Surveillance TechnologiesMemo In the near future, I intend to introduce a two-bill package to establish reasonable safeguards for the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), facial-recognition systems, and other emerging technologies that electronically collect and retain information about individuals. Automated surveillance technology allows government agencies to track the movements and activities of law-abiding Pennsylvanians on an unprecedented scale. While these tools may serve legitimate law enforcement purposes, their indiscriminate use can result in the collection and retention of vast amounts of information about individuals who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. When combined across multiple systems, facial-recognition records and other personally identifiable information can provide the government with a detailed picture of an individual’s life – including where a person lives and works, whom the person associates with, the places of worship or political events the person attends, and even when the person seeks medical care or legal advice. Without clear guardrails, these emerging technologies could transform limited investigative tools into an Orwellian system of mass surveillance. To ensure that the convenience of these technologies do not come at the expense of the fundamental protections guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment, I intend to introduce the following bills. Bill #1 This legislation would establish necessary safeguards governing the use of ALPRs, facial-recognition systems, and other technologies that electronically collect and retain personally identifiable information. Absent the existence of exigent circumstances, this bill would require a government agency to obtain a warrant before utilizing these technologies to search for or track a specific person or license plate, limit the retention of collected information to the shortest period reasonably necessary, and require ALPRs to be clearly identified via signage similar to that required for certain automated speed-enforcement systems. Significantly, these rules would not apply to ordinary security cameras that record video without automatically identifying individuals or harvesting personal identifiable information. Bill #2 This legislation would authorize local governments to adopt, by ordinance, a moratorium on the installation and use of automated license plate readers within their municipal boundaries. This measure would ensure that residents and local officials have a meaningful voice in determining whether technology capable of continuously collecting and retaining personally identifiable information may be used in their communities.
Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2w ago

Gov. Josh Shapiro wields 100+ years of American liberal rhetoric to retell an old story: That government can be a force for good. But as he offers himself as a leading party voice, what does his record show? W/ @angelasink.bsky.social www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/07...

Josh Shapiro's rise to power reveals wins, losses, and broken promises

As voters nationwide get to know Josh Shapiro, Spotlight PA examines where he has succeeded as governor but also where he has arguably fallen short.

spotlightpa.org

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 4w ago

In the state budget before lawmakers as of Saturday night: -$900 million+ in new ed spending. -Pension boosts for public workers retired for 25+ years -No use of rainy day fund Not in: -Tax policy changes -Minimum wage hike -Skill games W/ @jaxonwhite.bsky.social

PA poised to adopt $50.8B budget

The plan also preserves the state’s nearly $8 billion rainy day fund — a key priority for Republicans, who control the state Senate.

spotlightpa.org

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 4w ago

The latest on where budget talks stand, from @jaxonwhite.bsky.social and I. Details on a final deal are sparse, but the potential inclusion of either an elimination of the data center sales tax exemption or the state's GRT on electricity are key debates. www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/07...

PA’s 2026 budget could be finished this weekend

Two unresolved issues in PA’s 2026 budget talks are whether to cut a data center sales exemption and lower an electric utilities tax.

spotlightpa.org

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · last mo.

Happy July 1st. For the fifth straight year, Pennsylvania's budget is late. Not all late budgets are created equal, and it's weeks until there is an impact. Still, partisan tensions boiled over yesterday as Democrats blamed the GOP for the delay. www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/07...

PA’s budget is late for the 5th year in a row

Senate Republicans say a deal is close on a PA budget, but House Democrats are accusing them of “not finishing the job.”

spotlightpa.org

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · last mo.

News: A bill to end a multi-billion sales tax exemption for the data center industry in Pennsylvania has passed the state House 197-5, capping a week in which the chamber approved a raft of bills restricting an industry facing wide grassroots blowback.

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · last mo.

New: Pennsylvania lawmakers will, in all liklihood, have to pull from the state's almost $8 billion rainy day fund to balance this year's budget. That fact will undergird closed door talks as the commonwealth creeps toward the June 30 deadline. www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/06...

PA lawmakers may tap rainy day fund to balance the budget

Pennsylvania may need to tap its $8 billion rainy day fund as lawmakers confront a growing budget deficit and limited new revenue options.

spotlightpa.org

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The fact that Peregrine falcons roost on the state office building named for a woman who dedicated her career to saving birds and locals turn out every year to rescue the fledglings if they fall will never not be a favorite Harrisburg fact.

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Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New: @jaxonwhite.bsky.social and I look at what's next for skill games. With potentially billions in revenue up for grabs, few talk about upholding an outright ban. But how to regulate the devices and what to do with the money (say, funding public transit) will define coming talks.

Skill games are illegal, PA court says. Now what?

Skill game taxation rates and ensuring public safety are among the policy questions PA lawmakers need to hash out.

spotlightpa.org

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New: Pennsylvania legislators are looking at either levying new taxes on, or axing tax exemptions for, Big Tech to bring in new revenue. But such efforts won't be enough to balance the budget, and must overcome powerful special interests to implement. www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/06...

Could Big Tech taxes fill PA budget holes?

A tax break for data centers worth $2B by 2031 could be on the chopping block in PA, and lawmakers are floating digital ad taxes.

spotlightpa.org

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

News: A GOP-controlled Pennsylvania Senate panel advanced a bill to implement an employee payroll tax funded state program guaranteeing 20 weeks of paid family leave for the commonwealth by a 9-2 margin. It now heads to the full chamber.

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

News: A bill to place a 5% gross receipts tax on companies that sell digital ads in Pennsylvania to fund property tax relief has passed the state House by a bipartisan 139-63 margin in the lead up to the state's June 30 budget deadline.

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Due to an almost decade old deal, Philadelphia City Council faces a choice between paying $200 million now to buy the city's police HQ amid a bitter budget fight or pay double the rent in future years to an influential city landowner. www.inquirer.com/politics/phi...

Philly City Council is holding up a proposal to borrow $200M to buy the police headquarters building

Officials warned if the city does not exercise its option to buy the building this year, the annual rent price is set to nearly double. Council members balked at the price tag.

inquirer.com

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

News: House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) said in an interview that he supports this proposal. "These are the biggest, most profitable companies that are bringing data centers and all of the challenges to our commonwealth. 100% they should pay their fair share."

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

News: A bill to levy a 5% tax on digital ad sales revenue in Pennsylvania has passed out of a Democratic-controlled House committee along party lines. Supporters say it raises millions from big tech companies but opponents say the cost will be passed on to consumers.

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

News: A bill to levy a 5% tax on digital ad sales revenue in Pennsylvania has passed out of a Democratic-controlled House committee along party lines. Supporters say it raises millions from big tech companies but opponents say the cost will be passed on to consumers.

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

ICYMI: A bill requiring all Pennsylvania school districts to ban the use, but not possession, of cell phones by students by the start of the 2027 school year passed the state House 126-75. It goes to the state Senate, which already passed a similar proposal.

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Nine of Pennsylvania's biggest data center projects will be excluded from Shapiro's plan to tie fast tracked permits and a tax break to higher environmental and transparency rules because they were underway before his announcement. www.pennlive.com/news/2026/06...

Why some of Pa.’s biggest data center projects won’t have to follow the governor’s new rules

Shapiro Administration has encouraged developers who are already in its fast track permitting program to use the GRID standards, but says they'll stay on the fast track regardless.

pennlive.com

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Good morning everyone. It's June 1st-- officially budget season in Harrisburg. Both chambers are in session for the next two weeks for a mix of important procedural shuffling and busy work as closed door talks intensify before the June 30th deadline.

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A new law signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro last month will allow the state to again update its codes governing accessibility via regulation rather than legislation, closing a loophole opened by a 2022 court ruling. Because sometimes, the legislature does meaningful stuff.

I OFTEN WRITE ABOUT WHAT ISN’T HAPPENING IN HARRISBURG. Call it the cynics’ disease. But the gears of government do grind away behind the scenes, producing meaningful laws that deserve attention — even though they don’t solve the commonwealth’s long-running issues with education. Or housing. Or transportation. Or energy. Or ethics. Or … OK, you get the gist! Take a new law, sponsored by state Sen. Christine Tartaglione (D., Philadelphia), that creates a path for Pennsylvania to update its accessibility building codes through an administrative process, rather than through legislation. The state hasn’t updated these regulations, which govern critical issues such as when elevators or ramps must be installed or how large bathrooms should be to accommodate a wheelchair, since a 2022 Commonwealth Court ruling. The judges in that case found that the General Assembly had unconstitutionally “delegated unfettered legislative authority to a private entity to establish accessibility standards.”THAT PRIVATE ENTITY IS THE INTERNATIONAL CODE COUNCIL, a nonprofit that recommends universal standards for building construction. In 2008, the legislature adopted a law that directs a committee of politically appointed experts to review ICC building codes and decide which should be applied in Pennsylvania. However, accessibility codes were exempt from this same process, which meant that they could be adopted by the Department of Labor and Industry without any public input. That presented a constitutional problem, said Sarah Miller, chief lobbyist for the Pennsylvania Builders Association, because the legislature cannot delegate its power to set policy for the commonwealth to a private out-of-state group. “No one in Pennsylvania,” Miller said, “had any say, whether elected or appointed, on what was included in those codes.” When the Department of Labor and Industry moved to adopt the ICC’s new accessibility codes in 2021 — including requiring more automatic doors and open space as well as axing loopholes that allowed multistory homes to be built without elevators or ramps in some cases — the association sued.Commonwealth Court later invalidated the regulations. TO TARTAGLIONE, THIS ISSUE ISN’T JUST A THEORETICAL DISPUTE OVER THE PROPER CHANNELS TO CRAFT PUBLIC POLICY. She was injured in a 2003 boating accident and uses a wheelchair. “You know how frustrating it is to go into a ladies’ room to a handicapped stall and it's for a walker, not a wheelchair?” Tartaglione told Access Harrisburg. “Accessibility isn’t abstract,” she added. “It's about whether someone can enter a building, use a restroom, or navigate the space safely and independently. So if I show up to a place that they say is handicap accessible and there's three steps, I can't get in myself.” After some closed-door talks with the builders and other stakeholders, Tartaglione came up with a bill that sailed through the General Assembly with (relative) ease. It establishes an 11-member board, including at least three people with disabilities, to take public comment and review future accessibility code modifications. THE LAW’S LANGUAGE IS THE SAME AS WHAT TARTAGLIONE INTRODUCED. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t attempts to make it more complicated. That’s unsurprising on an issue that impacts as many bottom lines as building codes (the original 2008 bill that set up the review process went through six versions before legislators sent the final proposal to the governor’s desk). In both chambers, Republicans advanced an amendment to require local governments to retain multiple third-party agencies if they have privatized their code enforcement. The proposal is backed by builders, who argue it prevents a monopoly on code enforcement, which can constrain builders. But it’s opposed by local governments, which fight unfunded state mandates. The amendment failed in both the state House and Senate. In the latter chamber, rank-and-file Republicans rejected it despite support from GOP leadership. It seems the desire to fix one pressing issue now triumphed over the desire to maybe solve two issues at once. Let’s see if this same approach can be harnessed as policymakers consider how to tackle housing.
Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Inbox: Gov. Josh Shapiro is calling for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to place new conditions on data center development, requiring his proposed transparency, energy, wage and environmental standards in exchange for qualifying for an existing multi-million tax break.

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Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A patchwork of municipal and state rules for approval of new projects is partially to blame for Pennsylvania's slow growth in housing, developers, citing think tanks and experience, told a House GOP panel last week. Via @wdownard.bsky.social \ penncapital-star.com/housing/pa-z...

Pa. zoning, permitting process named as barriers to homebuilding • Pennsylvania Capital-Star

The commonwealth's homebuilding industry identified two barriers to its work before Republican lawmakers this week.

penncapital-star.com

Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 3mo ago

ICYMI: GOP gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity is calling for Shapiro to follow up on a 2022 campaign pitch to provide a gas tax rebate to state drivers. He offered in the early days of the race and spiking gas prices from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Some nuance: Both Democratic CD-3 nominee Chris Rabb and Robert Saleem Holbrook, executive director of the Abolitionist Law Center, haven't fully echoed DA Larry Krasner's call for Bob Brady to resign as Philly Dem chair, instead emphasizing structural reforms.

State Rep. Chris Rabb, who secured the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat Tuesday, said the issue facing the Philadelphia Democratic Party goes beyond leadership and points to deeper structural concerns. “I think the issue is not the leadership — the issue is the structure,” Rabb said. “The most important thing we can do in this moment is overhaul and modernize the operations of the Philadelphia Democratic Party. That is the most time-sensitive and substantive thing we can do.”Tweet from Robert Saleem Holbrook: 🧵1/2 While I appreciate DA Larry Krasner calling for the resignation of Philly Democratic Party Chairman Bob Brady, I think the problem is the entire PA Democratic Party from state on down. It's designed to block a real Black radical agenda and progressive leadership.Tweet from Robert Saleem Holbrook: 2/2 Like the national Democratic Party it serves the establishment and corporate donors, and functions as a plantation when it comes to radical or progressive Black and Brown leadership. What Krasner is saying is something I said over a year ago.
Stephen Caruso@stephenjcaruso.bsky.social · 3mo ago

An anecdote from Election Day: I was at the Back Mountain Regional Emergency Service Facility. It's a decade old building on a scenic hilltop that houses fire and ambulance services for a rural swath of Luzerne County, just outside Dallas, Pa. (Pics don't do the view justice)

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