Doubts Emerge About Pa. Budget Deal

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Good morning and a good Veterans Day to you. Here’s what to know today:

Pennsylvania’s proposed budget deal will give the state the second-highest sales tax in America. Some Democrats are resisting.

“Under the proposed budget agreement, Pennsylvania’s sales tax would rise to 7.25 percent, up from 6 percent. California’s is the nation’s highest at 7.5 percent. The rate would rise to 8.25 percent in Allegheny County, where it is currently 7 percent, and to 9.25 percent in Philadelphia, where it is currently 8 percent,” AP reports. Sen. Daylin Leach said the sales tax, which falls more heavily on the state’s poor, is being raised in order to lower property taxes, which hit’s the state’s wealthier residents more. “We have the highest rate of income equality in 100 years in this country and making the tax structure more regressive makes that worse, not better,” he told AP.

Philly’s new mayor and council may lean on Penn to pay to support the city’s public schools.

Mayor-elect Jim Kenney and Councilwoman-elect Helen Gym both ran campaigns in which they promised to revive the PILOT program that has the city’s non-profits — including the University of Pennsylvania — make payments in lieu of taxes to help fund the city’s faltering public schools. Penn officials have resisted pressure to make such payments, saying the university already contributes mightily to local education. The Daily Pennsylvanian reports that pressure will also come from on-campus: “With a school system in crisis and [one of the] highest poverty rate among America’s largest cities, Philadelphia is in desperate need of more resources, and Penn should continue to seek new ways to create opportunity for Philadelphians,” said Penn Dems President Sean Foley. “PILOTs, or some comparable alternative, would be a good start.”

Police officials those Philly cops caught on camera, sleeping in their patrol car, will be disciplined.

The picture was posted Saturday and went viral on Twitter. Now, the Inquirer reports, “The department, citing an ongoing investigation, has declined to release the men’s names, and said the terms of their punishment will be worked out once the department’s Internal Affairs unit finishes its probe of the incident.”

Comcast reset the passwords of 200,000 customers whose accounts had been hacked.

“Here’s the catch. Hackers didn’t breach Comcast’s computers to steal the information. Instead, they created their list of passwords with information stolen from you and me. Sometimes we’re so gullible that hackers can trick us into giving them our password. Then, since we often use the same password everywhere, those hackers have a skeleton key to our lives,” CNET explains. “Comcast’s answer was to reset all the passwords for its affected customers, said a spokeswoman for the company. “

Members of a West Philly church spent Tuesday night preparing for an attack by an “active shooter.”

“Nothing is off-limits anymore in our society,” said Pastor Donald Moore of Mount Carmel Baptist Church. After the Charleston attack killed nine African-American church members earlier this year, he decided to be pro-active, CBS3 reports. Philadelphia Police Detective Joseph Rovnan led Tuesday night’s session — and says he’s heard from other churches interest in similar training. “These people are preparing themselves, and we are preparing on the outside and the two of us can meet in the middle,” he said.

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