Gov. Tom Wolf signs legislation into law at Muhlenberg High School in Reading, Pa., Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019. Wolf approved legislation Tuesday to give future victims of child sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits and to end time limits for police to file criminal charges.
Matt Rourke / AP Photo
Matt Rourke / AP Photo
Gov. Tom Wolf signs legislation into law at Muhlenberg High School in Reading, Pa., Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019. Wolf approved legislation Tuesday to give future victims of child sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits and to end time limits for police to file criminal charges.
With 2020′s arrival, there are some new laws now on the books that may change the the way some people can go about the business of living, working, and playing in Pennsylvania.
From how they can vote to when they can hunt deer to how snow days may no longer equate to play days, Gov. Tom Wolf put his signature on more than 100 bills that reached his desk over the course of last year. Here are 15 new laws we chose to highlight.
Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo
Pennsylvania voters can avoid the trip to the polling place to cast their ballot starting with the April 28 primary. They now can mail it in.
When it comes to changing the way Pennsylvania runs its elections, change doesn’t come often. That’s why the changes approved to the state’s election code passed were hailed as historic.
Starting with the primary, registered voters can cast their ballot from the convenience of their own home without having to provide an excuse as to why they can’t make it to the polls on Election Day. Mail-in voting, as it is called, will not take the place of absentee voting but rather is in addition to it.
Coming in the fall is the elimination of straight-party voting in the general election that allowed voters to cast their votes for all the candidates on the Republican or Democratic tickets with the touch of one button.
Another big change that could get more people to participate in elections is the revised voter registration deadline. Voters can register up until 15 days before an election, instead of the 30 days that has been the rule.
“These changes will make it easier for people to vote, participate in our democracy, actually to take care of the most fundamental responsibility of citizenship: voting,” Wolf said when signing the bill.
Effective date: Parts of this law already took effect, including the pushback of the voter registration deadline. Mail-in voting takes effect starting with this year’s April 28 primary
Alex Driehaus / PennLive
Property owners can now mark their property boundaries with purple paint stripes instead of posting “No Trespassing” signs and it means the same thing.
Seeing red means you are getting angry. Seeing purple now means stay the heck off my land.
A new law allows property owners the option of using purple paint markings instead of “no trespassing” signs to mark their property boundaries. The paint markings, unless you are color blind, are considered more visible than a “no trespassing” sign that be weather-beaten or vandalized.
The law specifies what kind of paint is used as well as where it is to be placed to serve as fair warning to potential trespassers. The right shade of purple is found in cans that are commercially available and have the words, “No Hunting,” on the label. The purple stripes are required to be at least 8 inches long and 1 inch wide. They must be placed between three and five feet from the ground on posts or trees no more than 100 feet apart.
Effective date: Jan. 26
A year after giving immunity to folks who rescued dogs and cats stuck in a hot car, lawmakers got to work on passing legislation that extends that same protection to rescuing individuals – from babies to senior citizens – trapped in a car on a hot day.
This law requires rescuers to abide by a series of steps. First, they need to see if the child or adult can exit the vehicle themselves and if not, if the driver is nearby to get their attention. If the individual inside the vehicle appears to be in distress, rescuers can enter the vehicle using just enough force to get the trapped person inside out. Then the rescuer is obligated to leave a note explaining the damage and the whereabouts of the person who was rescued and to stay with the individual until authorities arrive.
Effective date: Already in effect
James Robinson / Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Caucus
Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Caucus John Boyd of Philadelphia shared his story about how receiving $205 a month helped turn his life around after 25 years of being homeless.
Eights months after the state’s cash assistance program was revived after a seven-year hiatus, this temporary help to the state’s poorest citizens went away again. And it did not go quietly.
Democrats fought hard to try to preserve the program that provided about $200 a month for prescription co-pays, bus fare, utility bills, toiletries and other items to people with disabilities, domestic violence survivors, children in the care of friends and neighbors, and people in drug or alcohol rehabilitation.
But Republicans disliked the program, saying it lacked accountability for how the recipients used the money.
House Democrats’ efforts to preserve the program involved a lot of impassioned speeches. But on the Senate floor, advocates’ demands to preserve the program sparked fireworks. Chaos erupted when senators debated the bill. Procedural rules were ignored. Tempers flared. It turned into such an ugly scene it attracted national media attention. In the end, the Republicans’ desire to end the program won out.
Gov. Tom Wolf, while supportive of keeping the program intact, ended up signing into law the measure that killed the program because it also had provisions in it for hospital funding which he said were too important to cut off. Advocates for the program then went to court to get the program restored and lost that battle as well.
Effective date: Already in effect
Gene J. Puskar / AP Photo
Pennsylvania became the 19th state in the nation to raise its minimum tobacco buying age to 21 with an exception made for active members of the military and veterans with honorable discharges who must be at least 18.
It soon will be illegal for anyone under the age 21 to buy tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, in Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter, it will be illegal for the under-21 crowd to buy those products anywhere in the country.
Pennsylvania became the 19th state to raise its tobacco-buying age as a way to try to combat the teen vaping epidemic and to discourage young people from becoming habitual smokers. It did, however, provide an exception to keep the minimum age at 18 for active military members and veterans with an honorable discharge. Violations that apply to both the underage buyers and sellers would be summary offenses, which are typically punishable by fines.
Another provision in the law bars the possession of tobacco products in school buildings, buses and property owned or controlled by the school by students and adults alike. However, local school boards could retain the option of creating a designated outdoor smoking area for non-students.
Effective date: July 1
Peter Petokas via AP
This undated photo provided by Peter Petokas, a research associate at the Clean Water Institute of Lycoming College’s biology department, shows an adult Eastern hellbender, an aquatic salamander that can grow up to two feet long, making them the largest North American amphibian according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
Granted this new law naming a state amphibian may not change any Pennsylvanian’s life in any measurable way but it gives Pennsylvania one more official creature. Beyond that, backers of the movement to give the Eastern Hellbender this designation note these aquatic salamanders serve as a a good public relations tool for the state.
“Because the eastern hellbender exemplifies what is good about Pennsylvania’s waterways, it is the perfect selection to become the official state amphibian. It is an excellent natural indicator of good water quality,” said Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, who sponsored the hellbender bill.
Effective date: Already in effect
This law broadened the list of crimes that can cost public officials and state and school employees their pensions. So now in addition to the ones that had been on the books, anyone who commits a job-related felony offense or one punishable by more than five years in prison will lose their pension.
Sen. John DiSanto, R-Dauphin County, championed this government reform measure after seeing the State Employees’ Retirement System board restore the $245,000 a year pension of former longtime state Sen. Bob Mellow of Lackawanna County. That decision came despite Mellow’s guilty plea to federal conspiracy charges and serving prison time because at the time, federal conspiracy charges weren’t on the state’s list of pension forfeiture crimes.
“We are putting elected officials and public employees on notice that they will no longer be able to abuse their power and walk away with a lifetime taxpayer-funded pension,” DiSanto said at the time.
Effective date: Already in effect
If you were on the do-not-call list already, you don’t have to worry about having to do it again.
Pennsylvania changed its law so that now once you register your telephone number on the Do Not Call registry, it’s permanent – or at least as long as the subscriber has that phone number or doesn’t request to be removed.
Previously, the state’s “Do Not Call” registration required residents to re-enroll every five years. According to the state Attorney General’s office, anyone who previously registered their phone number on Pennsylvania’s do-not-call list were automatically put on the permanent list and do not need to re-register.
If your number is not on the list and you want it to be added, you can register it by visiting the attorney general’s website at attorneygeneral.gov or by calling 1-888-777-3406.
Effective date: Already in effect
Keith Srakocic / AP Photo
Dominick Cerminaro, left, leads his sons, Paul Cerminaro, center left, Santo Cerminaro, center right, and his father, Santo Cerminaro, right, into the woods to go deer hunting on the first day of regular firearms deer hunting season in most of Pennsylvania, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 in Zelienople, Pa.
Some hunters have waited a lifetime as have generations before them to legally hunt even more wildlife on a Sunday in Pennsylvania than just the crows, coyotes and foxes that are already fair game on Sundays. The wait will soon be over – but only for a very limited time, as in three Sundays a year.
A new law allows the Game Commission to pick which three Sundays that hunting will be permitted. One of them will be at the commission’s discretion. One will be during archery deer season, which runs late September through late November and late December through late January, and the third will be a Sunday during the firearms deer season, which runs late November through mid-December.
Hunter retention and recruitment were among the reasons supporters cited in their push for expanding hunting opportunities on Sundays.
Effective date: Feb. 25
Mindaugas Kulbis / AP Photo
FILE PHOTO: Members of the U.S. Army of the Pennsylvania National Guard arrival by plane at a airport in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, June 5, 2016. US troops arrived Sunday in Lithuania to participate in NATO maneuvers.
Hoping to attract experienced Pennsylvania National Guard members to re-up for a six-year re-enlistment, the governor and lawmakers came up with a one-of-a-kind enticement.
National Guard members who re-enlist will enable their spouse and/or family members to get help with their higher education costs. Family members working toward an industrial certificate, associate or bachelor’s degree at most Pennsylvania colleges or universities will be eligible to have up to 10 semesters of their tuition covered through the Pennsylvania National Guard Military Family Education Program, or so-called Pennsylvania GI Bill.
The amount of tuition assistance is the lesser of the cost of tuition or the in-state tuition rate set by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which is currently $3,858 a semester. The 10 semesters of tuition assistance can be divided amongst the family members. This benefit is in addition to the tuition assistance that Guard members themselves are eligible to receive through the Education Assistance Program with their initial service obligation of six years.
Effective date: The program is open and the first grants will be awarded starting Aug. 1.
Victims of child sexual abuse now have more time to seek justice against their abusers in Pennsylvania.
After years of advocates trying to change the state’s criminal and civil statutes of limitation for child sex crimes including recommendations that came out of a scathing grand jury report about clergy sex in the state’s Catholic dioceses, they achieved some success in 2019.
Now anyone who commits a serious sexual abuse against a child can potentially be criminally prosecuted as long as they live.
Previously, victims had to pursue a criminal case by age 50. For civil cases, childhood sexual abuse victims now have until age 55 to file a lawsuit against their abuser; previously, they had to file suit by the age of 30. In addition, the penalties increased for violating the state’s mandatory child abuse reporting act and certain nondisclosure provisions in settlement agreements related to childhood sexual abuse are now barred.
Effective date: Already in effect
Mark Pynes / PennLive
On those days when weather, building repairs or threats cause schools, student learning doesn’t have to come to a standstill as a result of a new law that allows schools to give out assignments students can do at home and still have it count as a school day.
To be clear, this law has nothing to do with climate change. Rather, it gives school districts an option when snowy, icy or hot weather or other situations arise that force buildings to close.
Instead of just tacking another day on the end of the school year or taking away a scheduled day off, schools are allowed to have up to five flexible instruction days each year. On these days, students are given assignments they are to complete at home and that allows the day to count toward the required 180-day school year.
Effective date: Already in effect
With dairy farmers struggling and the number of farms in Pennsylvania shrinking, the state’s policymakers gave some attention to help create opportunities, resources, and interest in agriculture.
The so-called Pennsylvania Farm Bill is actually a multi-bill package. One provides for personal income tax credits, starting this year, for farmers who sell or lease their land and assets to beginning farmers and offering an incentive to keep the land in agricultural production. Another gives money to help seed new or expand existing dairy-related businesses to better market Pennsylvania milk.
Another offers grants and low-interest loans to farmers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to help them comply with regulations to limit farm-runoff into creeks and streams feeding the bay.
Other measures include one that creates a PA Farm to School Grant Program for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students to support increased nutrition and agriculture education. And another component that fund the ongoing fight against the Spotted Lanternfly, an insect that can be destructive to grape, tree-fruit, hardwood, nursery and landscape industries.
Effective date: Already
Students in Pennsylvania now must stay in school longer.
A new law lowered the compulsory start age to 6 from 8, and it raised the dropout age to 17 from 16.
While some Republican lawmakers thought it should be left up to parents when students must start or can leave school, a majority agreed that more time in school could inspire them to become lifelong learners.
“Raising the upper age of compulsory attendance is a significant back end measure to increase the likelihood of postsecondary attainment; however, engaging children in the crucial fundamentals of education early in life provides the basis for students to be prepared for opportunities available to them throughout their educational careers,” state Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera told House members at a June hearing.
Effective date: Already has taken effect
Reforms to the state’s criminal justice system were the among the last pieces of business that state policymakers got out of the way as they wrapped up business in 2019.
Republicans and Democrats reached agreement on measures that limit the stays of lower-risk offenders in prison to reduce the state’s prison population and to stop first-time offenders from becoming repeat offenders.
While the two-bill package included a variety of reforms, among them was one that adds a new trigger to a 2012 law for an automatic six-month to one-year jail sentence for a parolee who continually ignores parole conditions, such as going to treatment or counseling.
Another allows the automatic parole of certain non-violent offenders after they have served a minimum sentence of two years or less, a change designed to make parole more swift, consistent and efficient. Yet another seeks to better help inmates prepare to reenter society.
Effective date: Some parts of this reform package took effect last year and most will take effect by mid-February.
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