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In this Update:

• State of the Commonwealth Address
• Langerholc Tours 1st Summit Arena
• Hall Family Farm Receives Century Farm Award
• Penn Highlands Community College Expansion
• Richland Community Days
• A Closer Look at Supporting Student Safety Initiatives
• Senate Approves $75 Million to Expand Educational Opportunities for Students
• You Can Now Get Customized Travel Alerts with 511PA
• Expanded Access to Benefits for PA Disabled Veterans
• Celebrating Back to School Month by Brushing Up on School Bus Safety

State of the Commonwealth Address

This week, I joined State Representative Jim Rigby at the Cambria Regional Chamber’s State of the Commonwealth Address. I was honored to be welcomed as the keynote speaker.

Langerholc Tours 1st Summit Arena

This week, I visited the 1^st Summit Arena at the Cambria County War Memorial. The arena was built in 1950 and has required numerous upgrades to remain operational. Jean Desrochers, Chris Glessner, and Mike Parrish took me on a tour through the venue to see many of the improvements currently being made. I look forward to continuing our collaboration and seeing what the 75^th Anniversary of the arena brings next year.

Hall Family Farm Receives Century Farm Award

Last week, my staff attended a ceremony where the Hall Family Farm in Centre County was awarded the Century Farm Award by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The award was given in recognition of the Hall family’s ownership of their farm for over 100 years and to celebrate their contributions to the agriculture industry in the Commonwealth.

Penn Highlands Community College Expansion

Last week, my staff attended the ribbon cutting ceremony of a new Penn Highlands Community College location in Bellefonte. This Centre County location is the seventh one opened by Penn Highlands and helps to expand access to higher education in the region.

Richland Community Days

Last week, the annual Richland Community Days event made its return! The two-day block party featured live music, food, games, and more. It was great to see so many constituents in Richland over the weekend!

A Closer Look at Supporting Student Safety Initiatives

Since 2018, the Senate Republicans have lead the efforts to provide safe learning environments for students, $100 million was included in this year’s state budget for all school districts to address school safety, security needs and mental health concerns. An additional $20 million for safety grants is also made available to nonpublic schools that apply by Thursday, Sept. 26. Applications for both grant programs are available online.

Recently passed legislation calls for every school district in Pennsylvania to have a school security officer who has completed armed security training to protect students. The security presence will consist of at least one trained and vetted school security officer, which may be either a school police officer, school resource officer or school security guard.

Senate Approves $75 Million to Expand Educational Opportunities for Students

The EITC program helps to provide students with the opportunity to learn in the environment that best meets their specific educational needs. Through a collaborative approach of providing tax credits to businesses making contributions to create additional educational opportunities for Pennsylvania families, more children are able to receive assistance. Eligible contributions are those made to scholarship organizations, educational improvement organizations and pre-kindergarten scholarship organizations.

Students are eligible to receive a scholarship if their household’s annual income is no greater than $112,348 plus $19,775 for each dependent member of the household. Learn more about the EITC program here.

You Can Now Get Customized Travel Alerts with 511PA

We all want to avoid heavy traffic, road closures and anything else that will delay us on the road, and potential hassles will be different for motorists depending on where they live and where they are going.

511PA now offers the opportunity to sign up for personalized travel alerts based on specific areas and routes, days and times, and road issue (type of trouble and when cleared).

On 511PA’s website, navigate to “My 511” at the top to set up an account to begin receiving alerts.

Expanded Access to Benefits for PA Disabled Veterans

A new Pennsylvania law that went into effect this month exempts 100% of disabled veterans’ benefit payments from income calculations for any commonwealth program or benefit.

Act 27 of 2024 ensures veterans who receive disability compensation will not have those payments counted against them when applying to programs such as the Real Estate Property Tax Exemption, the Educational Gratuity Program, the Veterans Temporary Assistance Program and the Military Family Relief Assistance Program.

The exclusion also applies to unspent veterans’ benefit payments and is extended to the unmarried surviving spouse of a veteran upon that veteran’s death.

Celebrating Back to School Month by Brushing Up on School Bus Safety

As students head back to school, school buses require additional caution from drivers. School districts are now permitted to use automated cameras on stop signal arms to enforce the school bus stopping law. Learn more and find parent safety tips and a reminder of other laws here.

Pennsylvania law requires motorists to stop at least 10 feet away from school buses when their red lights are flashing and their stop arm is extended. Motorists following or traveling alongside a school bus must also stop until the red lights have stopped flashing, the stop arm is withdrawn, and all children have reached safety. Do not proceed until all the children have reached a place of safety.

Penalties for failure to obey school bus safety laws can result in a $250 fine and a $35 surcharge to be deposited into the School Bus Safety Grant Program account, five points on a driving record and a 60-day license suspension.

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