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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; State Sen. John Yudichak this week said the absence of transparency in how businesses were deemed essential and non-essential by the Wolf Administration have been compounded by the lack of accountability of an arbitrary waiver process that has led to businesses to appropriately question the credibility of the governor&rsquo;s executive order that has closed their businesses.
				Yudichak, I-Swoyersville, and other elected officials commented on Gov. Tom Wolf&rsquo;s reopening plan and how his order to keep businesses shuttered will be enforced.
				&ldquo;In response to business owners exercising their constitutional rights to hold elected officials accountable for their actions, Gov. Wolf has called these tax paying, law-abiding citizens &lsquo;deserters&rsquo; and threatened to strip away the state licenses that allow them to do business in the Commonwealth,&rdquo; Yudichak said.
				The senator went on to say that he fully understands the frustration of business owners who, through no fault of their own, are staring down the harsh realities of bankruptcy and the potential loss of their business.
				&ldquo;I have spoken to county leaders, District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, and countless business owners, and we all encourage Gov. Wolf to listen to the business owners of Luzerne County and work with us to find a safe way to operate our economy in the face of a pandemic so we can be committed to both saving lives and livelihoods,&rdquo; Yudichak said.
				On Monday, Gov. Wolf reminded Pennsylvanians that the state&rsquo;s actions to stop the spread of COVID-19 are working and that we must stay the course and follow the law or there will be negative consequences.
				&ldquo;Pennsylvanians are fighting for our lives,&rdquo; Wolf said.
				The governor reiterated that reopening too soon can cause COVID-19 to spread, for cases and deaths to spike and for closures to be reinstated perhaps for much longer.
				&ldquo;I cannot allow residents in a red county to get sick because their local officials can&rsquo;t see the invisible risk of the virus in their community,&rdquo; Wolf said. &ldquo;So, I must, and I will impose consequences if a county locally lifts restrictions when it has not yet been given the go-ahead by the state.&rdquo;
				State Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-Kingston, said, &ldquo;We are all frustrated by this shutdown..&rdquo;
				Kaufer said over the past week, he has been working with the governor&rsquo;s office and Luzerne County officials to take a more regionalized approach to reopening Luzerne County, moving the majority of the county from &ldquo;red phase&rdquo; to &ldquo;yellow phase,&rdquo; while leaving Hazleton in the &ldquo;red phase.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;Based on the actual data for Luzerne County, I am cautiously optimistic that we will be heading in that direction in the near future, especially when the positive cases specific to Hazleton are taken into account,&rdquo; Kaufer said.
				Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, said the major success of the country has been attributed to the creation of order through laws and regulations,
				&ldquo;And at times, this can be burdensome,&rdquo; Pashinski said. But nevertheless, there is a legal path to vent your view to initiate change. The Rule of Law has kept us as a people safe and allowed us to advance and prosper. Without the Rule of Law, life becomes uncertain and dangerous. Please think before you do &mdash; the consequences could be disastrous.&ldquo;
				Sen. Toomey comments
				U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, issued a statement in response to Gov. Wolf&rsquo;s comments that he would withhold CARES Act funding from Pennsylvania counties that do not obey his lockdown policy.
				&ldquo;It is wrong for Gov. Wolf to withhold federal taxpayer funds from the CARES Act in an attempt to coerce compliance with his increasingly misguided lockdown policy,&rdquo; Toomey said. &ldquo;The CARES Act does not authorize this behavior.&rdquo;
				Toomey said this development underscores the problem when one level of government sends money to a different level of government to be spent as the latter entity chooses.
				&ldquo;Money can be spent or withheld inappropriately and it is very difficult for taxpayers to know whom to hold accountable,&rdquo; Toomey said. &ldquo;The intent of the draconian shutdown of our economy was to slow the spread of COVID-19 so that we would not overwhelm our hospitals. It has been clear since, at least, mid-April that the capacity of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s hospitals have not been, and will not be, threatened.&rdquo;
				Toomey went on to say that it&rsquo;s &ldquo;no longer acceptable to deprive people of their livelihoods.&rdquo; He said rather than punishing taxpayers by withholding federal aid that they helped to fund, &ldquo;our state government should be facilitating the safe re-opening of our economy.&rdquo;
				State urges
				census response
				Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) Secretary Dennis Davin this week reminded all Pennsylvanians to be a good neighbor and respond to the 2020 Census.
				&ldquo;As we continue to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by practicing social distancing, Pennsylvanians can support their neighbors and communities by responding to the 2020 Census,&rdquo; Davin said. &ldquo;This simple act is something we can all safely do from home &mdash; by mail, phone, or for the first time ever, online.&rdquo;
				This year marks the 22nd year of the United States Census, and commonwealth residents began receiving invitations to fill out the 2020 Census in the beginning of March. All households should have already received their initial invitation.
				Taking time to respond to the 2020 Census now means a Census taker will not need to visit your home later. On May 13, Census takers began a phased restart of on-field operations in the commonwealth by dropping off 2020 Census invitation packets at the front doors of households in areas where the majority of households do not receive mail at their home.
				The deadline to respond has been extended from Aug. 14, 2020, to Oct. 31, 2020.
				&ldquo;While Pennsylvania&rsquo;s response rate is currently higher than the national average, there are still some communities with response rates under 20 percent,&rdquo; Davin said. &ldquo;By encouraging all residents to respond to the Census, those communities will help ensure that they receive fair and adequate access to critical funding, resources, and federal representation.&rdquo;
				For more information about the U.S. Census, visit the PA Census website, and be sure to stay up-to-date with all of our agency news on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
				Turzai pushes to
				safeguard seniors
				Speaker of the House Mike Turzai this week said protecting our most vulnerable citizens is the top job of government during the COVID pandemic, and &ldquo;thanks to the lack of state action,&rdquo; it has become an urgent situation.
				Responding to published reports and &ldquo;finally released data&rdquo; regarding COVID-19 deaths occurring among Pennsylvanians living in the state&rsquo;s nursing home facilities, personal care homes and assisted living residences, Turzai, R-Allegheny, and Reps. Harry Readshaw, D-Allegheny, and Bill Kortz, D-Allegheny, introduced legislation &mdash; House Bill 2510 &mdash; to help these facilities keep loved ones safe.
				&ldquo;The Senior Protection Act, developed by medical experts, is a data-driven direct response to the COVID-19 crisis here,&rdquo; Turzai said. &ldquo;Senior adults, many with underlying health issues, deserve to live in facilities following the best medical practices, and their families deserve the peace of mind.&rdquo;
				According to the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, there are approximately 123,000 individuals living in 697 nursing facilities, 1,143 personal care homes and 58 assisted living residences throughout Pennsylvania. These facilities employ 143,000 people.
				According to the Department of Health, there are 11,801 resident cases of COVID-19 and 1,655 cases among employees, for a total of 13,456 at 540 distinct nursing and personal care facilities in 44 counties.
				To ensure consistency of programs, response, and study of clinical and public health outcomes, Turzai said the legislation would establish a coordinated, collaborative public-private-partnership approach of regional health system collaboratives. These health collaboratives would administer/manage personnel, protocols, testing and expenditures to protect the seniors in these facilities.
				Speaker Turzai has worked with UPMC experts to develop a plan to protect those most vulnerable to COVID-19. In fact, UPMC experts prepared, at the Turzai&rsquo;s request, a prototype for southwest Pennsylvania and developed a construct for the entire state, much of which is embodied in his legislation.
				The legislation will also provide an appropriation of $500 million from Pennsylvania&rsquo;s allotment of $3.9 billion in COVID-19 money from the federal government.
				An important component of the legislation is the Speaker&rsquo;s decision to use the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) to distribute the funds to these academic health systems. The money would be appropriated to the CFA for distribution to the health collaboratives. The CFA would divide the state into regions delineating all of the facilities within the parameters of a region.
				After receiving proposals, the CFA would contract with health collaborative administrators (which must be academic health systems) to operate, manage and administer the program in each region to protect residents in these facilities from COVID-19.

Capitol Roundup: Legislators take issue with Wolf’s economic reopening plan