The passage of the bills come as the cost of living continues to soar for Pennsylvanians under the Shapiro administration.
The General Assembly in Pennsylvania has been busy focusing on legislation to bring down costs for working families in the Commonwealth as the cost of living continues to rise under the Shapiro administration.
In recent weeks, the state House passed several pieces of legislation with bipartisan support that are focused on affordability.
House Bill 2109: The Golden Girls Law
House Bill 2109, the “Golden Girls Law”, was approved by the House with a vote of 123 to 78. The primary sponsor of the bill is Representative Tarik Khan (D-Philadelphia).
The bill seeks to prevent local governments from placing limits on the number of unrelated roommates who can live together. Local governments would still be permitted to limit occupancy based on health and safety standards.
Khan said in a memo to colleagues that the bill will “expand housing options, help people afford to stay in their communities and modernize housing policies.”
House Bill 2224:
House Bill 2224 was unanimously passed by the state House. It would establish a formula for a “reasonable return” on utility company investments in infrastructure and eliminate nearly $1.7 billion in taxes that electricity companies pass on to consumers as part of their electric bills.
“For each of these people, we are making a decision today to help lower their utility bills,” said primary sponsor Representative Elizabeth Fiedler (D-Philadelphia). Fiedler chairs the House Energy Committee.
“We know utility companies are compensated dollar for dollar for both the wages and the materials they need to do infrastructure upgrades and to pay the people who do that important work,” she said.
The bill would eliminate the state’s nearly 6% gross receipts tax on electricity, requiring utility companies to pass on the reduction to consumers. The House passed Representative Carl Metzgar’s (R-Somerset) amendment to cut the tax to zero.
House Bill 2496:
House Bill 2496, sponsored by Representative Paul Friel (D-Chester), would give municipalities up to a six-month “pause” on the consideration of any data center application.
The bill passed the House 201 to 1, with Representative Eric Nelson (R-Westmoreland) was the lone dissent.
The bill would allow a municipality to pause data center applications for up to six months to allow zoning ordinances to be updated.
“This pause window allows local governments the time they need to thoroughly research, draft and pass comprehensive land-use ordinances pertaining to data centers. The bill gives our local officials necessary breathing room to update these ordinances, evaluating demands like water and energy usage and other considerations related to protecting our communities from potential harms caused by data center development,” Friel said.
The bills now head to the state Senate for consideration.
