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Wilkes-Barre man pleads guilty to setting fire where body was found

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Death of 9-day-old infant still under investigation in Nanticoke

<p>HARRISBURG &#8212; The fee that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf wants municipalities to start paying for full-time state police coverage is a fraction of what other cities and towns pay for their local police departments, according to an Associated Press analysis of state data.</p><p>The analysis found that residents in municipalities that have their own police force pay perhaps 10 times the $25-per-resident fee the Wolf administration wants the Republican-controlled Legislature to approve.</p><p>The proposed fee would raise $63 million for a state police budget that is projected to approach $1.3 billion in the fiscal year starting July 1.</p><p>The state has no eligibility rules or poverty test for municipalities that get state police coverage, and free state police coverage has been a sore spot for at least two decades, since Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, sought to extract reimbursements from the largest municipalities benefiting from the service. Lawmakers repeatedly rebuffed him.</p><p>Budget-makers now are under pressure to reverse the increasing flow of highway construction funds into the state police budget, especially since lawmakers approved a $2 billion-a-year increase in motorist fees and taxes to improve Pennsylvania&#8217;s transportation system.</p><p>The data show that about 950 municipalities reported spending more than $2 billion on their local police departments in 2014, or an average of about $230 per person. That per-person cost two years ago was almost 10 times the fee Wolf is proposing for 2.5 million Pennsylvanians who live in municipalities that currently receive free, full-time state police coverage.</p><p>The governor&#8217;s office frames the proposal as one of fairness to municipalities that pay for their own police forces and as a way to improve public safety.</p><p>&#8220;This is something of an equity issue, but there is a lot of value in local police,&#8221; said Wolf&#8217;s press secretary, J.J. Abbott. &#8220;The governor is a big supporter of law enforcement and he thinks we should have a system that incentivizes the maximum level of police coverage for public safety.&#8221;</p><p>The AP analysis found that municipalities with full- or part-time state police protection are less populated and bigger geographically than the average city or town.</p><p>Of 2,560 municipalities in Pennsylvania, half &#8212; 1,287 &#8212; rely solely on state police for coverage, according to state data. Another 410 get part-time state police service to cover when their local force is off-duty. Those would not be assessed a fee under Wolf&#8217;s proposal.</p><p>Troopers are required to provide local police service to any municipality that requests it.</p><p>State police have not divulged a cost figure for the service in response to repeated requests from the Associated Press. However, legislative researchers reported in 2014 that state police said it had cost $540 million in 2012 &#8212; more than half the agency&#8217;s budget that year &#8212; to provide full- and part-time coverage.</p><p>Under the state constitution, motorist fees and fuel taxes are strictly for highway construction, repair and safety. Those dollars now underwrite two-thirds of the state police budget, or $800 million out of $1.2 billion.</p><p>The state&#8217;s largest legislative district, in northern Pennsylvania, where dozens of municipalities are served by the state police, belongs to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson.</p><p>Scarnati warned that many rural municipalities cannot afford the fee and that perhaps the state should have a poverty test to determine which cities and towns can afford it. But he also warned that, once imposed, the fee will surely rise.</p><p>&#8220;It may be $25 today, but it&#8217;s going up every year,&#8221; Scarnati said. &#8220;It&#8217;s only the beginning.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wolf </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_Wolf_Tom-cmyk-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wolf </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Gov. Tom Wolf would charge localitieswithout own coverage $25 per resident</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Marc Levy</p><p>Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Analysis: State Police plan a bargain for municipalities