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Since Pennsylvania Democrats captured the state legislature and the governor's mansion in last week's election, they've pledged to fast-track a number of priorities long stymied by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Hours after securing his own reelection, Gov. Josh Shapiro listed three items that were already familiar: taking steps to codify abortion rights, raise the minimum wage and increase public transit dollars.
Those measures could be just the beginning, said incoming Senate Pro Tempore Jay Costa of Allegheny County at an election debrief in Harrisburg.
"There's so much that's been bottled up for so many years that we're going to do," said Costa, who's been in the Senate minority for three decades. "We can do better, and we will do better and we will get rid of the obstructionists."
WESA spoke to several liberal advocates about their expectations for next year, and what they hope to see on the Harrisburg agenda. But achieving those goals may not always be as straightforward as they, or Democrats, hope.
Bolstering LGBTQ+ rights
Despite years of advocacy, and the passage of ordinances on the local level, efforts to pass statewide non-discrimination protections for gay and queer residents have gone nowhere. Thanks to local ordinances, places such as Pittsburgh and Allegheny County are safer for LGBTQ people, but those protections can evaporate just across a municipal boundary.
The result is that whether "you can be fired or turned away from an apartment … for being LGBTQ+ really depends on what town you live in," said Ray Sidney-Smith, chair of the Pittsburgh Equality Center. "That's ridiculous. … A patchwork isn't protection."
The House has sought to pass protections repeatedly since Democrats gained control of the chamber, in this past session and in previous years. But the bills have died in the Senate.
Sidney-Smith said lawmakers can also update the state's hate crime laws, so defendants "can't claim 'panic defense' when it comes to these kinds of heinous acts of violence against LGBTQ+ people."
There's been less discussion of anti-discrimination measures than of, say, raising the minimum wage. But Sidney-Smith said he's confident that Democrats will change that next year.
Public transit
Transit advocates say they hope Democrats can provide a reliable long-term funding model for agencies across the state. Recent state budgets have included one-time allocations for systems, but some activists say the agencies will continue "bleeding out" without ongoing support.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit cut about 20% of its service since the pandemic, said Laura Chu Wiens, executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit, an advocacy group.
Local transit has been "desperately underfunded," she said, a problem that has been "so consequential, not just for riders' lives, transit workers' lives, their jobs, but also the broader economy."
Transit advocates back a Shapiro administration plan to give transit a larger portion of existing sales-tax proceeds. Other proposals — to add a fee to car-rental bills or Uber and Lyft rides — would work, too, they say. A proposal to tie skill-game revenue to transit has been on a back burner since state officials failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to either legalize the machines or remove them from parlors and bars.
"Any new revenue sources … should be put in part towards transit," Chu Wiens said.
Cannabis legalization
For years, getting access to marijuana required Pennsylvanians to either cross state lines or get a medical card that allowed them to acquire cannabis in a local dispensary.
There have been several bipartisan proposals to legalize recreational marijuana, but under GOP control the state Senate didn't move on any of them.
The governor has said he'll sign any bill that gets to his desk. But questions remain: Should the state run its own stores, as it does with liquor? Could dispensaries be opened to any adult with a valid ID?
Squirrel Hill Rep. Dan Frankel, a Democrat, has favored the state-store model with some social-justice provisions, but others are wary of such an approach.
Brandi Hester-Harrell, executive director of Black Cannabis Week, said legislators should be sure that "those harmed by the war on drugs" are in a position to benefit from the opportunities created when drugs are legalized.
"We want a diverse workforce," said Hester, who earned a doctorate in education leadership and policy. But "a state-store model mirrors the alcohol market," one that "doesn't put equity or people-centered politics first."
"The cycle of harm [for people previously incarcerated or convicted] is what I'm most concerned about," she added. "I hope the [Democratic] trifecta use their power to center people … stick to it, even when it feels difficult."
Economic-justice initiatives
There's no question Democrats want to raise the $7.25 minimum wage for the first time since 2009. Previous efforts have stalled amid debates about how to phase in the increases, or whether minimums could vary by region.
Neighboring states already have higher minimums, and the number of employees impacted would be small: A recent report from the state Department of Labor and Industry shows about 43,000 Pennsylvanians earned the $7.25 wage last year. (Employees at higher wages would also see bumps if the wage is lifted.)
Will Arthur, the secretary-treasurer of Unite Here Local 57, says a higher wage could help service-sector workers in rural areas, where some are willing to accept $12 or $13. But he added that any wage bill should require future cost-of-living adjustments.
"Our goal isn't to use all this political capital and this victory to raise everybody to $15 or $16 an hour, and then we wait 15 years and everybody falls behind again," he said.
Some political insiders say the biggest challenge moving forward could be responding to calls for a higher wage now. And there will likely be broader calls for economic justice as well.
Arthur, for one, favors creating a statewide parental level policy modeled on Allegheny County's recently passed 12-week leave policy. There have been statewide parental-leave bills proposed in the past, including by Allegheny County Sen. Devlin Robisnon.
Some liberal advocates also want the state to raise more revenue from corporations and the wealthy.
Ray Murphy, a leader organizer with Tax Billionaires, Fund PA, noted that there has already been support for a tax on digital advertisements. And he said the climate might be right for Pennsylvania to consider adopting a law similar to one recently passed in New Jersey, which would charge a fee to some employers whose workers rely on Medicaid.
Because the state and its taxpayers help pay into Medicaid, such measures "go after big multi-state multinational corporations who aren't paying what they owe," Murphy said. "We think that's a pretty winnable demand."
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