190 BILLS SIGNED INTO STATE LAW IN '07

The Republican & Herald

By Robert Swift

HARRISBURG — Laws enacted in Pennsylvania during 2007 ran the gamut from giving certified nurse practitioners and midwives more leeway to treat patients to allowing local vineyards to sell wine at farmers markets.

The General Assembly is midway through its two-year session, and lawmakers have plenty of work to do on issues ranging from energy development to a modernized open records law and statewide indoor smoking ban.

Still, 190 bills made it into law after passing both the House and Senate and receiving the stroke of Gov. Ed Rendell’s pen. Several thousand bills are introduced each session, and a number of them also get tacked on as amendments to priority legislation. But the bulk are fated to remain as proposals.

The bill kicking up the biggest fuss is Act 44. This provides for the eventual tolling of Interstate 80 and higher Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls to generate new revenue for Pennsylvania’s transportation network. I-80 tolls are unpopular in communities along the interstate. At year’s end, critics raised doubts about whether federal officials would approve the tolling while Rendell pursued a Plan B strategy of inviting firms to submit new bids for leasing the turnpike.

Laws enabling certified nurse practitioners to order home health care and disability referrals for patients and nurse midwives to prescribe some medications are part of an ambitious health care agenda pushed by Rendell. The goal is to have these professionals take on more duties so patients don’t have to wait as long in emergency rooms and doctors’ offices.

Pennsylvania took the lead on another health issue by passing a first-in-the-nation law to require hospitals to meet benchmarks to reduce the number of infections acquired by patients during hospital stays.

Pennsylvania is trying to lure film producers through a law passed last summer creating a $75 million tax credit program to offset costs if a movie or TV show is produced in-state. The state has awarded $29 million worth of tax credits, but none has gone to any northeastern filmmaking ventures so far.

Other laws make members of “hazmat” crews eligible for a $100,000 death benefit if they die while responding to an emergency call by a 911 center and require more disclosure about timeshare sales presentations.

Lawmakers have their work cut out for them when they return to session in mid-January, Chuck Ardo, Rendell’s spokesman, said Monday. The House and Senate have to resolve differences over a state program to develop alternate sources of energy and tackle major pieces of the health care agenda to provide health insurance to the uninsured and reduce health costs.

“Energy independence and health care reform are certainly the primary issues, but removing the borrowing cap (on capital redevelopment assistance projects) so we can make strategic investments in economic development is still languishing,” Ardo added