Ray's Round Up: 2016 Elections Preview – Pennsylvania State Senate

One-half of all Pennsylvanians will get to vote for their member of Pennsylvania State Senate this year.  The term of office for a State Senator is four years, and there are 50 State Senate seats, but only half of them are up for election every two years.

There is an unusual aspect to the 2016 State Senate elections.  Every ten years State Senate districts are re-drawn to ensure that the population in each district is roughly equal.  Unlike Congressional Districts, which are determined by the General Assembly, a five- person Legislative Reapportionment Commission determines the State Senate and State House of Representatives districts.  The Majority and Minority Leaders of the Pennsylvania Senate and House (or their designees) comprise four members of the Commission.  The fifth member must be a citizen of Pennsylvania who does not hold a paid elected office and is chosen by the four other members.  If those four members cannot agree, the State Supreme Court chooses the fifth member for them.

The Legislative Reapportionment Commission met in 2011 and produced new legislative districts that would take effect as of the 2012 election.  These new districts were challenged in court, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled they were unfairly partisan.  The Reapportionment Commission went back to work in 2012 and produced new districts that won the approval of the Supreme Court.  However, this approval came too late for the 2012 elections, so the old districts were still used during that election.

What does this have to do with the 2016 elections?

Since State Senators serve four-year terms, this is the first election for these 25 seats to take place under the new district boundaries.  For some Pennsylvanians, it is the first opportunity to vote for a State Senator in their current legislative district.

Unfortunately, in 13 of the 25 districts there is only one major party candidate on the November 2016 ballot, so many candidates are running unopposed.  Included in that total are two districts – the 11 ^th and 39 ^th, where incumbent Senators won the write-in vote for the other political party, so their name will be listed on the ballot twice, once as a Democrat and once as a Republican.  There are also a number of districts that will not have the choice to return an incumbent State Senator to Harrisburg.  In Philadelphia’s 3 ^rd District, Shirley Kitchen is retiring; and in the 13 ^th District in Lancaster County, Lloyd Smucker is running for the U.S. Congress.  Pat Vance, of the 31 ^st District in Cumberland and York Counties; and John Wozniak, in the 35 ^th District in Bedford, Cambria, and Clearfield Counties, are also retiring.

Voters who have the opportunity to elect a State Senator in 2016 should recognize their choice is important to the future of Pennsylvania.  The General Assembly that begins work in January of 2017 will have many important issues to consider.  One of the most important issues will be the State Budget, and the many issues that are involved in allocating taxpayer dollars to state funded programs.  Debate about the budget will likely occupy the first half of 2017 and it is likely to feature arguments about whether the state needs to raise more revenue, perhaps by increasing either the sales tax or the personal income, or whether spending on state programs can be reduced.

An area of the budget debate that is often pushed aside is how lottery revenues are spent.  Despite predictions of shortfalls, the state lottery continues to produce record revenues. Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that dedicates its lottery revenues solely to programs benefitting older citizens allowing the lottery to help address the changing demographics of the state as the average age of Pennsylvania’s population has increased.  But our population is now on the brink of growing dramatically older, as the percentage of Pennsylvanians over the age of 65 is expected to grow from approximately 16 percent to well over 20 percent in the next 10 years.  A budget issue that must be debated by the next General Assembly is whether or not lottery revenues will be sufficient to address the upcoming population shift.

Candidates for the State Senate have expressed their views on many issues on their campaign websites.  We’ve put together a guide to the State Senate elections, identifying what seats are on the ballot this year, where the districts are located, who is running, and a link to their websites.

Choosing a State Senator to represent you in Harrisburg may not seem as glamorous as voting for who you think should be the next President of the United States, but the decisions the State Senate makes over the next four years are likely to have a greater impact on your day-to-day life than most things the President does.  Take some time to learn about the State Senate candidates, and most importantly – vote!

 

“Ray’s Round Up” features updates on current state and federal issues by Ray Landis, AARP PA’s Advocacy Manager.