VOTE NO ON THE DISASTER AMENDMENTS TO THE PENNSYLVANIA CONSTITUTION

 

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.