Welcome to the Commonwealth Roundup, here’s some stories happening around Pennsylvania.
Gov. Tom Corbett helps find trilobite fossil at Bald Eagle State Park today with local kids geocaching on tour of state parks.
— Chris Rosenblum (@CRosenblumNews) August 9, 2013
Montgomery County Courthouse has issued it’s 100th same-sex marriage license, defying state’s orders.
Montgomery County issued its state law defying 100th marriage license to a same-sex couple Friday morning.
There was little fanfare when Nicole L. and Virginia R. Perrine-Wilson of Delaware County applied for and received that license.
The employee who processed the application congratulated them on being the 100th couple “but that was that,” said Register of Wills First Deputy Joan Nagel.
The first couple in the office Friday morning was James B. Pearson and Matthew Greene of Abington, who became the 99th same-sex couple to receive a marriage license from Montgomery County, which is the only county in the state issuing licenses to same-sex couples.
By the end of the day, a total of 103 same-sex couples had received marriage licenses from the county since Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes announced his controversial decision on July 23.
Governor Corbett’s administration would like the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reopen Act 13 case with Governor Corbett’s newly appointed judge on the trial.
The seven-person Supreme Court was down one member during the original 2012 arguments due to the legal troubles of Justice Joan Orie Melvin, who was convicted on corruption charges in February. Governor Tom Corbett appointed Justice Correale Stevens to take her place July 30, prompting state agencies to apply for reargument.
State Rep. Jesse White, D–Cecil, was one of 44 House Democrats who filed a legal brief in favor of municipalities fighting the law. He said the latest move by the state amounts to an attempt to stack the deck.
“The Corbett Administration is a party to this case,” White said. “To have them say, ‘We want to be heard in front of the justice appointed by Corbett’ – it raises a couple of eyebrows.”
Two points: One, we shouldn’t be making tax policy this way – improvising in a panic because it’s the only thing we can get votes for in the legislature. We should think seriously about the city’s fiscal situation (like the pension fund) and the impact of increasing the local tax burden before we take a step like this.
Two, the city shouldn’t take on this burden unilaterally. Gov. Corbett appoints three of the five members of the board that runs the schools. We should make it clear to him we need a lasting solution that involves all parties, and he should think about whether he wants to go into a re-election year with the collapse of this school system on his hands.
