Lawmakers Override Rendell Veto
The state Senate has voted to override an education bill Governor Ed Rendell vetoed last month.
Senate leaders had said they would not hold any lame duck voting sessions, but changed their minds after the House voted to override the veto earlier this week. Senators were returning to Harrisburg today for leadership elections.
The Senate voted 42-7 this afternoon to successfully override the Two-thirds of the members in each chamber must vote in favor of overriding a veto for a bill to become law without the governor’s signature.
Rendell says he vetoed the bill because it contains an unconstitutional provision that would violate the state’s uniformity of taxation clause by giving tax breaks to nonprofit charter schools but not to other nonprofits.
But Senator Jeff Piccola, chairman of the Education Committee, says the provision in the vetoed legislation only sought to make a technical change to the law to make it clear that all public schools are tax-exempt.
"I am deeply gratified that my fellow legislators recognized the bipartisan, bicameral nature of this bill, and what it means to so many people," Piccola said in a news release. "I thank them for their overwhelming support and for putting students first."
"We were on the one-yard line. It would have been a shame to walk off the field now, and lose the hard-fought yardage we gained over the past two years. I am delighted that so many citizens win in this bill."
The move to override was led by Rep. Paul Clymer and House Education Committee Chairman Rep. James Roebuck and by Sen. Andrew Dinniman. They cited emergency certification for teachers in schools for the blind and hearing impaired, sexual violence education in high schools and college, funding for the popular Science in Motion program, the awarding of high school diplomas to Vietnam veterans, and tuition aid for college students with parents in the military.
Piccola said the bill, featuring 21 education-related bills rolled into one, was "inclusive, bipartisan and necessary now to address growing problems in our schools and in society.
Other provisions of the bill, encourage school districts to provide dating-violence education, provide financial literacy instruction and make the cost of college textbooks more transparent and affordable.
Senate leaders had said they would not hold any lame duck voting sessions, but changed their minds after the House voted to override the veto earlier this week. Senators were returning to Harrisburg today for leadership elections.
The Senate voted 42-7 this afternoon to successfully override the Two-thirds of the members in each chamber must vote in favor of overriding a veto for a bill to become law without the governor’s signature.
Rendell says he vetoed the bill because it contains an unconstitutional provision that would violate the state’s uniformity of taxation clause by giving tax breaks to nonprofit charter schools but not to other nonprofits.
But Senator Jeff Piccola, chairman of the Education Committee, says the provision in the vetoed legislation only sought to make a technical change to the law to make it clear that all public schools are tax-exempt.
"I am deeply gratified that my fellow legislators recognized the bipartisan, bicameral nature of this bill, and what it means to so many people," Piccola said in a news release. "I thank them for their overwhelming support and for putting students first."
"We were on the one-yard line. It would have been a shame to walk off the field now, and lose the hard-fought yardage we gained over the past two years. I am delighted that so many citizens win in this bill."
The move to override was led by Rep. Paul Clymer and House Education Committee Chairman Rep. James Roebuck and by Sen. Andrew Dinniman. They cited emergency certification for teachers in schools for the blind and hearing impaired, sexual violence education in high schools and college, funding for the popular Science in Motion program, the awarding of high school diplomas to Vietnam veterans, and tuition aid for college students with parents in the military.
Piccola said the bill, featuring 21 education-related bills rolled into one, was "inclusive, bipartisan and necessary now to address growing problems in our schools and in society.
Other provisions of the bill, encourage school districts to provide dating-violence education, provide financial literacy instruction and make the cost of college textbooks more transparent and affordable.
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