If the state Supreme Court’s rejection of a redistricting plan for state House and Senate districts put commonwealth voters and candidates in election limbo-land, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi says it appears one foot is back on steady ground.

Presidents of Penn State, Pitt, and Temple told the state House Appropriations Committee the Corbett administration’s call for a 30 percent reduction in their state appropriation is too harsh.  The administration’s go-to argument in the days after the budget plan was unfurled was that the proposed cuts represent a small percentage of the institutions’ overall operating budgets. 

The Tribune-Review reports that Gov. Corbet’s spending plan puts immense pressure on state prisons – and privatization is off the table when it comes to ameliorating the stress of a flat-funded budget proposal.  Speaking of the p-word – from yesterday’s Inquirer, a nice look at why “all signs seem to point toward a subtle retreat” from the governor’s “privatization drumbeat.”  Links after the jump.

State senators are holding the privatization of Pennsylvania’s wine and liquor stores at arm’s length as they discuss ways to change the system to make it more profitable.  

At its budget hearing Thursday, the Liquor Control Board’s CEO Joe Conti asked lawmakers for help on a slew of reforms.  Among them: bills to allow liquor stores to sell lottery tickets, allow more to open on Sundays, and change pricing rules to make them more competitive with neighboring states and online retailers.

Republican Senator John Pippy, of Allegheny County, said efforts to modernize the LCB won’t interfere with efforts to sell off the state’s liquor stores – a ball he said is not in the state Senate’s court. 

“The House, right now, is dealing with the privatization side,” said Pippy.  “Regardless of whether we privatize or not, these things would hopefully make the system better for the individual consumer but also increase the value so if we do go to privatize it, we’ll get more value out of it.”

Conti also wants lawmakers to give the LCB more control over the civil service exam that potential employees are required to take.  He said the agency should be able to hire and fire employees based on its own criteria, in order to be more competitive.

“You know, I’m not fixated on everybody not being civil service, but in our retail area – in marketing, in store operations, and in supply chain – we’d really like relief from civil service,” said Conti.  He added that the LCB pays a million dollars a year to have the state handle its job vacancies and fill them based on the established civil service standards. 

State budget secretary Charles Zogby explained one reason for low corporate tax revenues by holding up a smartphone at a budget hearing before the state Senate this week. “The data plans that we all now enjoy on our phones that don’t have the same tax coverage as it used to, that’s leading to an erosion of revenues, so we are looking at a shortfall,” said Zogby. Federal law prohibits the taxation of Internet access and, therefore, of phone data plans.  

A report two years in the making claims that women’s health care services are sorely lacking at county prisons across Pennsylvania, reflecting a prison system designed with men in mind.  The American Civil Liberties Union analysis says of the more than fifty county prisons housing female inmates, many lack policies to provide adequate prenatal care, sexually transmitted disease testing, and abortion services.

Testimony starts today in the second corruption trial of Mike Veon, a former Democratic state representative.  The Tribune-Review has sartorial notes and one deadpan check of lawyerly grandstanding from jury selection yesterday.  The Inquirer reports on a bill that has some city officials up in arms.  And John Baer writes on the silliness that was, is, and ever shall be: symbolic House resolutions – in this case, the “Year of the Bible” measure. 

State Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati’s says he’s not sure moving the primary election date is a good idea.  Mike Veon and one of his former aides will stand trial today on charges they funneled public grant money to Veon’s nonprofit for the sake of political campaigning.  And, following ex-Athletic Director Tim Curley’s lead, former Penn State administrator Gary Schultz has requested the charges against him be dropped as well.  Links after the jump.