HARRISBURG — A lobbyist for one of Pennsylvania’s most influential unions says a sitting state House lawmaker sexually harassed her, and she is urging the legislature to expand internal rules that govern who can bring misconduct complaints.

Andi Perez, who advocates on behalf of Service Employees International Union 32BJ in Harrisburg, plans to make the allegation Friday evening in Philadelphia during a listening session organized by new state Houser Speaker Mark Rozzi (D., Berks).

Rozzi has scheduled a series of public meetings to solicit feedback about the state House’s operating procedures amid partisan deadlock over which political party controls the chamber. The sessions offer a rare opportunity for Pennsylvanians to directly weigh in on the rules, which in most years are quickly adopted at the beginning of each new legislative session.

Perez said she was harassed by a male lawmaker while discussing a bill outside of the Capitol building, according to prepared testimony reviewed by Spotlight PA. She did not provide the lawmaker’s name, his party affiliation, or additional details.

The lawmaker “decided to caress my leg while I was wearing a skirt all the while telling me he was impressed by my passion and knowledge of the issues we were discussing,” Perez plans to say. “I moved away from him hoping he would stop — he did not.”

Two Western Pennsylvania school districts are among a dozen across the state accused by Pennsylvania’s auditor general of moving money in their budgets to raise taxes above a state limit without voter approval. North Allegheny and Canon-McMillan in Washington County were included in the audit, which looked at finances between 2018 and 2021.

The findings, revealed in a report released Wednesday by Auditor General Timothy DeFoor, suggest the districts are “strategically transferring and ‘committing’ funds” in order to raise taxes despite having millions of dollars in general fund accounts.

“These districts have found a way to use the law to their advantage so they could always raise property taxes,” Mr. DeFoor said. “It’s basically a ‘shell game’ that allowed these 12 school districts to collectively raise taxes 37 times during the four years we reviewed, which increased their respective General Fund accounts to $390 million.”

In addition to North Allegheny and Canon-McMillan, districts included in the audit are Abington, Bethlehem Area, Hempfield, Lower Merion, Neshaminy, Northampton, North Penn, Penn Manor, Lancaster and West Chester Area. The districts, which had not been audited by the state since 2017, were chosen because of the size of their fund balances.

Each district had also applied for exceptions to the Act 1 index, or the maximum tax increase set by the state. The exception, managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, allows approved districts to raise taxes above the index to cover costs related to construction debt, special education and retirement contributions. It bypasses a voter referendum, which is typically required to raise taxes above that threshold.

STATE COLLEGE — Pennsylvania State Police sent 70 employees to Penn State’s University Park campus in October to provide additional security for an event featuring one of the founders of the Proud Boys, a violent extremist group. But unlike the local police departments that assisted Penn State police at the event, State Police were not reimbursed for their services.

On Oct. 24, a Penn State student group hosted two far-right activists for a “comedy” event on campus. Despite repeated public statements from Penn State leaders calling the speakers’ views “abhorrent,” officials declined public calls to cancel the event, citing the constitutional right to freedom of speech. The student group paid the activists $7,500 in student fees for the appearance.

That evening, protesters gathered outside the campus building where the event was scheduled, and police did not immediately intervene when individuals in the crowd sprayed a chemical irritant at protesters, according to videos shared online. Officers from four local police departments and State Police, some on horseback, were on hand to help control the crowd. Penn State then canceled the event just before it was scheduled to begin, due to “the threat of escalating violence.”

Spotlight PA requested reimbursement payment information under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law from the police agencies working that evening. State Police told Spotlight PA in response to a records request that “no reimbursement occurred.”

A tell-all book about the Manhattan district attorney's office investigation into Donald Trump could be held up by a nondisclosure agreement.

The Daily Beast obtained the NDA warning that “any work performed for the office” is “privileged and confidential," which could jeopardize publication of the book, People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account, written by former special assistant DA Mark Pomerantz -- one of two prosecutors who quit in protest when incoming district attorney Alvin Bragg shied way from indicting the former president.

"That indictment never happened," says publisher Simon & Schuster. "This book explains why."

The book, which is due out Feb. 7, gives an inside account of the three-year investigation by Manhattan district attorneys to show that Trump defrauded banks and insurers, lied about real estate values on financial forms, avoided corporate taxes and violated campaign laws by paying hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Bragg has recently won two tax fraud convictions against Trump companies and finance chief Allen Weisselberg, and has indicated he may revive the case against the former president, but his office is now trying to block the Pomerantz book from hitting store shelves.

Welcome back to Route Fifty’s Public Finance Update! I’m Liz Farmer and this is the second installment of my series on Chester, Pennsylvania’s bankruptcy.

As with most—if not all—municipal bankruptcies, there’s a lot of blame being thrown around. But in Chester’s case, sentiments on all sides appear particularly caustic. So much so that for nearly two years, the receiver’s team has been working out of a sparsely furnished office a half-block away from City Hall. In courtroom testimony earlier this month, Receiver Michael Doweary described being called the “N-word” during a verbal altercation with Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland. Doweary, meanwhile, has accused city officials of nepotism and fiscal malfeasance, if not outright corruption.

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A key driver of the conflict is around fiscal management and disclosure. Amid its budget troubles, the city has racked up $750,000 in Internal Revenue Service penalties related to unpaid payroll taxes, fell victim to a $400,000 phishing scam that wasn’t publicly disclosed for months, cycled through two chief financial officers in as many years and has failed to produce an audited financial report since 2018. But perhaps the most striking example of the problems surrounding the city’s bankruptcy is the discord—and conflicting information—around Chester’s underfunded police pension.

Like other distressed cities, Chester has an outsized pension liability and annual pension bills that would take up a substantial portion of its budget if paid in full. But also like other cities, Chester hadn’t been paying its entire bill—called the Minimum Municipal Obligation (MMO) in Pennsylvania. In 2021, the city paid its full MMO for the first time since 2013 and it was a significant lift. The total it spent on pension and retiree health care costs that year—$14.6 million—took up 28% of its entire general fund.

But there’s a bigger problem: Due to accounting practices that inflated the plan’s assets and a dispute over what the city’s police pension formula actually is, no one really knows what Chester’s true unfunded liabilities are.

With the state Capitol at a total standstill, Pennsylvania House Speaker Mark Rozzi traded Harrisburg for Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

The Berks County Democrat kicked off his cross-state “listening tour” with an evening stop at Carnegie Mellon University, a day after he adjourned the House until Feb. 27. That move, which followed weeks of uncertainty over who would control the lower chamber, effectively froze the entire General Assembly until Allegheny County voters cast ballots in three House races next month — special elections widely expected to seal a razor-thin Democratic majority.

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More than 80 people turned out for the session on Wednesday [Jan. 25, 2023] at Carnegie Mellon. After the session, Mr. Rozzi told reporters he’s willing to recall the House sooner than Feb. 27 if lawmakers reach compromises on House rules and the statute of limitations. He called it “disgusting and shameless” to couple the child sexual abuse issue with a voter ID proposal.

“If it gets on the ballot, it’s going to be on the ballot by itself, not with these other constitutional amendments,” Mr. Rozzi said of the window for litigation. A longtime advocate for the idea, he has told of being raped by a Catholic priest when he was 13.

Residents who came to the event encouraged more bipartisan cooperation and making the legislative process more transparent.

HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania survivor-turned-lawmaker asked his fellow Republicans to unbundle three constitutional amendments this week to ensure statute of limitations reform ends up on the May primary ballot.

State Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair, pleaded with the House Republican Policy Committee on Monday to separate the issue from two other amendments — voter ID and regulatory reform — that Democrats reject. During his gripping testimony, Mr. Gregory detailed the lifelong impact he and other survivors face — including his own brother, who died of a cocaine overdose in the 1980s.

“We found out years later that he had shared with my sister, eight years younger, unbeknownst to all of us, that he had been sexually abused at 15 by a 30-year-old man who befriended my family and took him to the local racetrack because my brother liked to watch the races,” Mr. Gregory said.

“That was many years ago, but when I’m here today, I can at least go home to my dad and say that he didn’t die in vain, that I can talk for him,” he added.

Mr. Gregory, along with House Speaker Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, sponsored a constitutional amendment in 2021 to open a two-year window in which adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse could sue their perpetrators in civil court.

By Saturday, the estimated price tag for cleaning up California’s flooded landscape had topped $100 million. Emergency management agencies weren’t ready for a “megaflood,” a once-in-a-century string of storms that have dumped some 32 trillion gallons of water on California’s parched land.

While Pennsylvania hasn’t experienced the same type of disaster, it does have experts with experience in dealing with flooding. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency last week sent personnel to Sacramento to help that region respond to the current disaster and plan for the next one.

“The impact of historic and deadly flooding seen recently in California has been as shocking as it has been heartbreaking,” said Randy Padfield, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

“We have a lot of staff that are very experienced in dealing with floods,” Mr. Padfield said. “Pennsylvania is one of the most flood-prone states in the nation, and as a result, our staff have the experience to provide this much-needed support to our counterparts and communities in California.”

Loaning emergency personnel from far-away states to figure out what happened and how to be ready for the next monster flood is part of an ongoing exchange of expertise across the country.

The Emergency Management Assistance Compact is a formal agreement that allows all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands to share resources, such as personnel or equipment, during disasters.

WEST CHESTER — The Chester County District Attorney's Office announced the arrest of Pennsylvania State Trooper David Levy, 36, on charges of official oppression, recklessly endangering another person, possessing an instrument of crime, and simple assault.

On Dec. 28, 2022, while off duty, Trooper Levy allegedly forced another vehicle off the road and stopped vehicles near the entrance of Longwood Gardens after driving recklessly on Route 1 in Kennett Township, according to the DA's office.

Witnesses said they heard a gunshot and observed Trooper Levy approach another car with his gun drawn shouting commands while purporting to act in an official capacity, the DA said in a release.

Trooper Levy served as a Pennsylvania State Police Trooper since February 2021 and was stationed at Troop K-Media Barracks. He is currently suspended without pay pending the outcome of the charges.

On Dec. 30, 2022, police searched the defendant's car and found a bullet hole in the dash of the car. A 9-millimeter Luger shell casing was found in the center console. Police later learned that earlier on the night of the incident the defendant had been drinking alcohol at a bar in Aston Township, Delaware County.