As the three-week stretch of budget hearings is starting to wind down, House Republicans on Wednesday unveiled an initiative that will allow them to hear from state employees instead of the agency heads that have been appearing before the appropriations committees since the end of February.

 

Dubbed “SEAS” for State Employees Achieving Savings, a cadre of House Republicans led by Rep. Marguerite Quinn (R-Bucks) announced the creation of a web portal that will allow state employees to directly contact the House Appropriations Committee with cost-savings ideas they have developed while operating on the front lines of state government.

Rep. Marguerite Quinn (R-Bucks) joined House Insurance Committee Chairman Tina Pickett (R-Bradford) and Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller to announce a new service to help residents of the commonwealth find lost life insurance policies and to discuss the benefits.

Those whose family members may have passed and need to find the life insurance policy may go onto the insurance department consumer services bureau's website, fill out a form, and then if a policy is found they will be notified within 90 days.

Although the amnesty period will not begin until early 2017, the guidelines for the tax amnesty program authorized as part of the revenue package accompanying the FY 2016-2017 budget have been released.

 

Under the guidelines, all known and unknown tax delinquencies that existed prior to December 31, 2015, for taxes owed to the Commonwealth and administered by the Department of Revenue will be eligible for the lessened burden as part of the amnesty program.

Pennsylvania has used tax amnesty in the past to collect money and Rep. Marguerite Quinn (R-Bucks) has been working on using the tax amnesty strategy once again. 

House Bill 1888 would allow tax delinquents to file tax returns without dealing with any of their potential penalties. Rep. Quinn believes that doing this would only help the commonwealth see money they may have otherwise never seen.

At a press conference Wednesday, Sen. Tom Killion (R-Delaware), Rep. Jesse Topper (R-Bedford), Sen. Elder Vogel (R-Beaver), and Rep. Marguerite Quinn (R-Bucks) joined others to discuss the importance of telemedicine being part of our health care system. 

Rep. Topper stated that, "Innovations and telemedicine are helping to make health care more accessible, more convenient and more affordable."