On April 15, 2021, the Observer Reporter published an OP-ED
written by Republican Commonwealth Senator Camera Bartolotta. Her commentary was a scathing attack on
Governor Wolf concerning proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution
(Article III, Section 9 & Article IV).
These two amendments, which will diminish the Governor’s powers during a
public health emergency, will be on the ballot Primary Day, May 18, 2021. A
third, non-controversial proposal would add a new section to the Constitution
providing for equality of rights under the law. Voters will respond “yes” to
accept each amendment or “no” to reject and keep the Constitution unchanged.
Unfortunately, the Bartolotta OP-ED does a disservice to
Pennsylvania voters by misrepresenting the language of the first two amendments
and the purpose for which Republicans passed them in the first place. This commentary will attempt to counter her
partisan attacks and discuss other Republican efforts to promote these radical
amendments through misleading campaign literature now being circulated to
Pennsylvania voters.
By way of background, Governor Wolf and his administration
sought to protect Pennsylvanians from the ravages of the pandemic, while
Republican state legislators followed the lead of then President Trump by
minimizing its significance. As the
governor issued executive orders to save lives, Republicans unsuccessfully fought
to reverse each decision in the media and then through the courts. The only path left to Republicans was to take
the drastic step of passing legislation to amend our Constitution, even though
the crisis is now manageable due to the successful vaccination roll-out.
Ms. Bartolotta states that the amendments are needed “to
avoid the kinds of mistakes we have seen this administration make over the past
year.” Her discussion of the “mistakes” is vague other than the curious point
that the Governor’s lockdown scared people away from emergency rooms and made
elective procedures impossible for several weeks. In fact, hospitals nationwide were full of
COVID patients and unable to perform elective surgeries.
Governor Wolf and his administration consistently received
high marks from the Trump administration CDC officials during the darkest days
of the pandemic. In September of 2020, Dr. Debora Birks, the Trump coronavirus
response coordinator, had nothing but praise for the Wolf administration’s
handling of the virus. She ranked Pennsylvania among the top five states and
felt that Governor Wolf’s restrictions on restaurants and bars turned the tide
of infection.
Senator Bartolotta infers that the executive branch and the
legislative bodies need to cooperate more when faced with a public health
crisis. She believes the new amendments
will do the trick. The truth is that Republicans are not seeking cooperation. They
are seeking to remove power from the executive branch and reserve it for
themselves.
Imagine 235 legislative members trying to reach a consensus
in the middle of the next catastrophe. We should all be thankful that the
framers of the Pennsylvania Constitution saw fit to give this extraordinary
power to the governor alone.
Ms. Bartolotta is vexed about the wording the Department of
State adopted in drafting the ballot questions on the disaster amendments.
Ironically, she fails to give us the language or demonstrate how the wording is
“misleading and biased.” What follows are the two questions as they will appear
on the May 18 Ballot:
Proposed Constitutional
Amendment, Article III, Section 9:“Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended
to change existing law and increase the power of the General Assembly to
unilaterally terminate or extend a disaster emergency declaration—and the
powers of Commonwealth agencies to address the disaster regardless of its
severity pursuant to that declaration—through passing a concurrent resolution
by simple majority, thereby removing the existing check and balance of
presenting a resolution to the Governor for approval or disapproval?”
Proposed Constitutional
Amendment, Article IV:“Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to change
existing law so that: a disaster emergency declaration will expire
automatically after 21 days, regardless of the severity of the emergency,
unless the General Assembly takes action to extend the disaster emergency; the
Governor may not declare a new disaster emergency to respond to the dangers
facing the Commonwealth unless the General Assembly passes a concurrent
resolution; the General Assembly enacts new laws for disaster management?”
Each question is as clear and concise as the Republican
legislation would permit. My sense is
that the Senator would like to avoid the phrase “thereby removing the existing
check and balance” from the first question and “regardless of the severity of
the emergency” from the second. These
clauses disclose the Republican intent to mislead the public from the actual
damage caused by the disaster amendments.
As if the Bartolotta commentary was not bad enough, in
recent days the conservative Commonwealth Foundations has taken efforts to pass
the Republican amendments to new lows. Voters are being solicited with multiple
mailed glossy campaign postcards depicting the smiling faces of
minorities.
The mail recipients are urged to “SUPPORT EQUALITY FOR ALL
PENNSYLVANIANS, 3 Yes Votes = Equality For All.” No matter that only one of the
ballot questions involves an uncontroversial equality provision and that the
other two questions are a power grab by Republicans, with nothing to do with
equality. Welcome to the world of “say
anything to win” Pennsylvania Republican Politics.
Voters should select “NO” on the above two amendments
seeking changes to disaster emergency declarations and “YES” on the equality of
rights provision.
