With workforce shortages causing businesses to reduce hours and services and outsource work, and the resulting supply chain issues, the Chamber’s Board of Directors is calling for an end to the $300 per week federal Unemployment Compensation bonus payments as soon as possible. Currently, the weekly bonus is scheduled to end in early September, though 26 states have opted to end the benefits sooner. Legislation is currently being considered in Harrisburg that would also end the bonus payments in Pennsylvania, and offer return to work bonuses. This week, the Chamber Board voted unanimously in opposition of reentry bonuses.
House Bill 508 would provide a $300 bonus after four and eight weeks of employment. Senate Bill 699 would provide a $1,000 bonus to individuals returning to work after four weeks of employment. In addition to the unanimous vote by the Board, the Chamber has received feedback from members of all sizes expressing concerns over the appropriateness of return to work bonuses.
“The UC bonus and stimulus payments have been disincentivizing people from returning to work for months,” said Chamber president Fred Gaffney. “With good paying jobs available throughout the state, the government needs to recognize that it is hindering economic recovery. Businesses should not have to compete with the UC system for employees.”
On June 14th, the town’s new parking application went live, which allows residents, employees and visitors to pay by smartphone. Citizens now have the opportunity to download the free Pango Parking App and pay to park using a credit card. There will be a convenience fee to use the App. You will need to download the app from your App store or set up an account with Pango at www.mypango.com.
• A Pay-by-Phone credit card option is available if you do not have a smartphone.
• Signs will be located throughout town to notify you in which Pango Zone you are parked. There will be 14 Zones throughout Bloomsburg.
• When you choose the zone in the App, the screen will advise you of the costs, time restrictions and choices for length of stay.
• You will be able to add time from a remote location as long as it does not exceed any
restrictions in that zone.
• If you drive multiple vehicles you can add them all in the App but must choose the correct
license plate when you pay to park. Enforcement is done by license plate.
• Meters will remain as a coin choice at many spaces. You do not have to pay the meter if you
choose to use the App. If you do not use the app you must park and pay at a meter.
From PA Chamber of Business & Industry
The state legislature flexed its new constitutional authority last week and voted to end Governor Tom Wolf’s ongoing COVID-19 Disaster Emergency Declaration. The concurrent resolution received bipartisan votes in both chambers, with one Democrat joining all 28 Republicans and one Independent in the Senate and eight Democrats voting with all 113 Republicans in the House to approve the measure.
During floor remarks, Republicans argued that with a majority of the Wolf administration’s mitigation orders having already been lifted, an increase in the number of vaccinations and a decrease in COVID caseloads, an emergency declaration was no longer necessary. The administration – which had strongly opposed giving the General Assembly the authority to end emergency declarations with a simple majority – and legislative Democrats raised concern over the future of programs and federal funding that tied to the emergency declaration.
To that point, the General Assembly also passed legislation – which the governor signed into law – that extends the regulatory flexibility the administration utilized over the past year as part of the disaster declaration. This extension lasts until Sept. 30.
May Primary Election voters approved two changes to the state’s constitution as it relates to a governor’s emergency powers. The first measure gives the General Assembly the ability to end or extend an emergency disaster declaration by a simple majority vote. The second measure would limit emergency disaster declarations to 21 days, but allow the General Assembly to approve an extension via a concurrent resolution. Prior to these changes, governors could issue an emergency declaration for up to 90 days and extend it indefinitely, and the General Assembly could only end a declaration by a 2/3 majority vote. The PA Chamber had supported the constitutional amendments as a way to restore checks and balances to the emergency declaration process.
The Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce is spotlighted in the latest edition of SECV8’s In Your Neighborhood program. Host Chris O’Rourke interviewed Chamber President Fred Gaffney about the organization’s activities since the pandemic began, and how the Chamber is looking to help members and the general business community going forward.
The episode will air every Wednesday at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m., every Friday at 5:30 and 9:30 p.m., every Saturday at 1 and 4:30 p.m., and every Sunday at 1, 5, and 9:30 p.m. through the month of June.
Pennsylvania’s new unemployment benefits system is now online and accepting claims at benefits.uc.pa.gov.
The new unemployment system replaces a 40-year-old outdated mainframe that made filing for unemployment benefits complicated for users and processing benefits cumbersome for staff. The new system makes filing for benefits easier and faster for claimants. Staff will need less time to process claims, which is expected to help reduce the number of claimants waiting for their claim to be processed.
These changes will allow employers to:
• Receive important information and notices via a dashboard.
• View all notices of separations, dates of appeal hearings, and UC correspondence in real-time.
• Have greater oversight, faster response time, and better communication regarding changes in information.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to have an actual event,” said Dan Knorr, the university’s director of external and government relations.
Knorr spoke to about two dozen people, including state Rep. Kurt Masser, Chamber of Commerce President Fred Gaffney and BU administrators and staff, gathered outside the new four-story, $35 million building near Centennial Hall on campus.
“I know this is just a small thing, but I feel like I’ve been dreaming of it for a year. So this is very exciting,” Knorr remarked.
The light-filled glass building features a large, central atrium and is home to administrative offices as well as student classrooms and art studios.
That’s an unusual mix for a campus building, noted BU President Bashar Hanna. He called the new facility a “collaboration.”
“Often, when universities build buildings, they design them either as academic buildings or as administrative buildings,” Hanna told the crowd. “What we’ve done here at Bloomsburg emphasizes that it’s one family.”
Just inside the main entrance, the new admission’s office welcomes incoming students in the same building as other student services, such as financial aid and the registrar. Those offices had been scattered throughout campus, making it harder for students to access those services, university spokesman Tom McGuire said.
History and art students who had crowded into the aging 114-year-old Old Science Hall for classes now have space and resources spread throughout the building’s four floors, McGuire added.
The university broke ground on the building in late 2018. It opened early this year.
From PA Chamber of Business & Industry
With less than one month remaining in the state’s 2020-21 Fiscal Year and negotiations on the upcoming year’s budget beginning in earnest, the Commonwealth continues a strong fiscal showing. May’s revenue collections totaled $3.9 billion – representing a staggering 65.4 percent increase over official estimates.
Last month, the state’s Independent Fiscal Office forecasted the Commonwealth would finish the fiscal year with a $3.16 billion revenue surplus. The state is on track to realize that number with revenue collections to date totaling $36.6 billion, or $2.9 billion over estimates.
The higher than anticipated revenues come as welcome news for state government officials. With the fiscal year nearing an end, June historically marks a period of intense negotiations over the upcoming year’s state budget. Adding another dynamic to budgetary discussions is the influx of more than $7 billion in federal stimulus aid.
While strong revenues help to alleviate pressures on the General Fund brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still several areas of disagreement between the Wolf administration and Republican majorities in the General Assembly – including the final spend number and the allocation of the stimulus dollars.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed interest and optimism in finalizing the 2021-22 budget plan well ahead of the June 30 constitutional deadline.
Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education is hosting public hearings in June to review the proposed integration of six universities into two institutions, doubling the number of opportunities the public has to directly voice their feedback.
The virtual hearings are part of a transparent, consultative process outlined in state law that has guided the System toward its goal of expanding student opportunities through integrations. The proposed plans would create two combinations of three co-equal campuses: California-Clarion-Edinboro universities in the western region and Bloomsburg-Lock Haven-Mansfield in the northeast.
“Feedback from the public is an integral part of our efforts to creatively reimagine the structure of public higher education in a way that expands student opportunities, supports their success, and sets these campuses for sustainability deeper into the 21st century,” Board chair Cindy Shapira said. “The hearings are not only part of the process outlined in state law, they are also the right thing to do because these efforts are in support of public higher education in the Commonwealth.”
The hearing schedule will be:
• June 9, 8-9:30 a.m. (western plan)
• June 9, 4:30-6 p.m. (western plan)
• June 10, 8-4:30 a.m. (northeastern plan)
• June 10, 4:30-6 p.m. (northeastern plan)
Each hearing will include brief presentations by system leaders as well as opportunity for the public to voice their feedback on the proposed integrations. The public can view the hearings, participate, or submit comments here.
“By hosting morning and late-afternoon hearings, the public will have greater opportunity and choice for when they would like to participate,” Chancellor Dan Greenstein said. “We made a commitment when this journey began almost a year ago to be consultative and transparent because we are doing nothing less than reimagining how public higher education is delivered in Pennsylvania. This is historic. This can profoundly support students by giving them access to academic programming and other activities across three campuses, more than a single campus can offer. And if successful it will mean serving these regional economies deeper into the 21st century by maintaining and expanding quality, affordable higher education.”
The process involves organizing public comments submitted through email and other means by subject matter and their potential as actionable items. The comments are reviewed and evaluated daily by subject matter experts at the System.
“We’re committed to documenting and showing any improvements to the integrations plans based on public comment before final plans are presented to the Board for their consideration,” Greenstein said. “Transparency is key to the success of integrations. So too is the involvement of stakeholders from the grassroots all the way to university and System leadership. We are the public’s higher education system, and as such, we’re committed to continuing to be consultative and transparent to stakeholders across the Commonwealth.”
Integrations are possible through Act 50 of 2020, legislation passed by near-unanimous vote in the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf. It proposes at both California-Clarion-Edinboro and Bloomsburg-Lock Haven-Mansfield single leadership teams, faculty cohorts, enrollment management, and budgets while opening academic program at the co-equal campuses to all students. It also places priority on maintaining unique identities and experiences at the six campuses and, while maintaining traditional residential education experiences, expanding into potential growth areas – non-degree credential and non-credential upskilling programs in the northeast and affordable, Pennsylvania-based fully online programming in the west.
The Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce and Chambers of Commerce Service Corporation (CCSC) are pleased to announce that Penn National Insurance has declared a 5% dividend for the ChamberChoice Business Insurance program. Members who placed their insurance coverage with Penn National Insurance during the 2019/2020 program year and remained active Chamber members and policyholders through the end of the program year will receive a dividend check during the month of June. This year’s dividend totaled over $1.3 million. Since the program’s inception, total dividends returned to business communities throughout Pennsylvania nears $11.1 million.
The ChamberChoice Business Insurance program is just one of many benefits of that CCSC offers Chamber members. The partnership between Penn National Insurance and CCSC was designed to provide a value-added membership benefit. An important aspect of this group insurance program is preventing loss and controlling claims costs. Because dividends are based on the group’s collective loss experience, a business that may have had a significant loss may still be eligible to receive a dividend.
The program is sold exclusively through local, independent agents who can offer chamber members a variety of coverages and pricing on property and casualty insurance, including businessowners, commercial auto, property, general liability, inland marine and workers’ compensation. Dividends are paid on all of these coverages. In addition, through safety consulting, Penn National Insurance and local independent insurance agencies encourage member businesses to develop safety practices to substantially reduce or eliminate workplace injuries.
For more information, including a list of member agents, click here.
More than 430 businesses and organizations belong to the Chamber to receive benefits and support efforts to strengthen their businesses and the region. Increased membership allows the Chamber to offer additional programs and benefits, have a stronger voice in advocacy and be involved in more activities and initiatives. The Chamber welcomes Montour Solar One.
Montour Solar One is a joint venture project between Pattern Energy and Talen Energy, which will provide cost-effective renewable energy to the region. The project, located on land owned by Talen Energy, will utilize undeveloped land adjacent to Talen’s Montour Steam Electric Station. Using undeveloped land, the solar farm will generate ~100 MW of installed solar energy generating capacity, enough to power 20,000 homes per year.
For more information on Montour Solar One visit its website, Facebook page or call 570-218-5868.