(The Center Square) – As the clock is close to running out of the current legislative session in Harrisburg, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Pennsylvania’s General Assembly have said what they hope to accomplish in the following term.
For one Philadelphia Democrat, he highlighted a few items that he believes should be tackled next session – and that a blue supermajority may make it harder to get there.
“I’m in the heart of the city,” said state Rep. Amen Brown, a Democrat who represents West Philadelphia in the state House’s 10th District, in an interview with The Center Square. “I’m all for making sure we fully fund SEPTA and all mass transit across the state.”
Long-term funding for mass transit has been a key issue for Democrats in Philadelphia and beyond for the past few years.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, backed by legislative Democrats, in early 2025, proposed taking an extra 1.75% from revenue already coming in from Pennsylvania sales tax and putting it toward funding transit, with SEPTA and Pittsburgh Regional Transit receiving the lion’s share of the money.
However, other funding sources have been proposed, including adult-use recreational marijuana. That idea was squashed by Senate Republicans.
Taxes on skill games, the particulars of which the legislature failed to iron out, have also been mentioned.
Amidst protracted budget negotiations, Republicans also proposed a deal that would pull from finite capital funds intended to serve long-term transit needs like infrastructure and equipment to meet the system’s everyday expenses.
Democrats expressed intense opposition to the plan, saying it would essentially defund transit by diverting much-needed resources. Ultimately, when the legislature missed its deadline to come up with a solution and SEPTA made drastic cuts, capital funds were pulled anyway under the direction of Shapiro and PennDOT’s Mike Carroll.
Brown acknowledged that fully funding mass transit will require revenue.
For the following session, Brown also said the legislature needs to have a conversation about skill games.
“Because the fact of the matter is, if we decide to tax skill games at 52%, like casinos, they’re not coming back,” Brown said to The Center Square. “And you’re just going to put a battery in the back of the illicit market.”
“You’re going to have machines out in the streets, there’s going to be the companies…running around with tens of thousands of machines out here in these streets,” he continued. “We’re just going to empower them, and we can’t do that. We have to get the right policy in place for that revenue.”
Brown cited House Bill 2213, authored by fellow Philadelphia Democrat Danilo Burgos, which proposes a $500 monthly fee on each machine.
Shapiro and many other Democrats back taxing skill games gross revenue at a similar rate as slot machines.
Brown said the bipartisan bill championed by Burgos, which he is a co-sponsor, would guarantee $400 million a year upfront.
“(It) will fund public safety and first responders, fully fund public transit,” Brown said to The Center Square. “And it was one more thing that me and my caucus, we all agree to.”
“We need the revenue,” he continued.
On Wednesday, lawmakers in Harrisburg failed to pass a skill games bill on the final day of voting before the general election.
In addition to mass transit, Brown told The Center Square that he wants to ensure schools are fully funded in the next session.
Shapiro has touted record-high investments made into education during his tenure in office.
“I think we need to take a deeper dive,” Brown said.
He referenced a 2023 decision made by the state’s Commonwealth Court that ruled Pennsylvania’s K-12 public funding system was unconstitutional.
Brown said the legislature is sending money to those schools but raised questions about how they are using it.
“Now, we need to look into what is the school district doing with the money because you have the money, but folks don’t want to have that conversation,” Brown said.
“And we need to really say ‘hey okay we sent you the money where is it going, why do we have to applaud football players for buying air conditioners?,” he continued, seemingly a reference to Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts donating $600,000 earlier this year to upgrade the HVAC system at a school in northeast Philadelphia.
“That shouldn’t be the case,” Brown said. “The money you’re getting…where’s it going?”
“And I have a serious problem with that,” he continued. “So, making sure schools are funded.”
Brown also said it was time for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to discuss school choice.
“We do need to have that school choice conversation because our Philadelphia public school system is super poor,” Brown said. “Look, I’m a product of this public school system.”
“I had my kids in it for a little bit,” he continued. “I had to take them out, right?”
Brown said he was reliant on school meals while growing up and linked this to improving the education system.
“We’ve got to fix our public school system, and we have to give options to families,” he told The Center Square. “A lot of families in my district, they want the option to send their kids somewhere else.”
“We shouldn’t be forcing public school only on families,” he added.
Brown also expressed concern that Philadelphia was losing its highest-income earners to other states, which he believes will negatively impact the state’s overall revenue.
First elected to the state House in 2020, Brown spoke with The Center Square in an interview on Oct. 15 at Temple University, during U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick’s, R-Pa. “Red Tape Dialogues.” The gathering featured industry leaders who offered recommendations on how all levels of government can best support their respective crafts.
While McCormick, a Republican, hosted the event, Ben Kirshner, Pennsylvania’s Chief Transformation and Opportunity Officer serving in Shapiro’s administration, was also on hand to deliver remarks.
Brown noted that one of the main concerns he frequently hears at his office are concerns from constituents about the obstacles and hurdles they face with regulations. He applauded Shapiro’s administration for the work they’ve done to address those concerns and noted that it was important for all levels of government to be on the same page about cutting red tape.
Recent polling indicates that Shapiro holds a significant lead over Republican Stacy Garrity, the State Treasurer, in his bid for a second term in office as governor. Brown is unopposed for his upcoming bid for another term in the state House.
On the campaign trail, Shapiro and Democrats have emphasized their goal of achieving a trifecta, which would include Democrats keeping control of the governor’s office and the state House, while flipping the state Senate.
Brown is supporting Shapiro’s bid for a second term and hopes Democrats achieve that trifecta, but he offered some concerns he had, which could occur next session.
“I think that we really need to govern from the middle,” Brown said to The Center Square about the next session. “I do have serious concerns about a supermajority in the state House.”
Brown expressed confidence that Democrats would maintain a majority in the state House, but he believes a landslide in his party’s favor will make it more difficult to govern.
“When the numbers get 110, 112, that’s when it gets crazy, and it’s going to be difficult for us to govern, right,” Brown said. “And that’s a fact.”
“And when I first got in office, the Republicans had that issue, and they couldn’t get anything done,” he continued. “And that will be the same for us, so I’m comfortable around 104, 105 Democrats, as long as we keep the majority, and prayerfully we get the trifecta.”
In explaining his reasoning, Brown said problems could arise because in Pennsylvania, there are members in purple districts who may have to take difficult votes that could hurt them back home.
“Even though we’ve been in the majority now for several years, there’s bills that we can’t even run because we have super conservative members, right,” Brown said. “So, if you expand that, then you’re going to wake up the super far far left, which can be a problem, right?”
“And they’re a partial problem now,” he continued. “If they expand their numbers, then they’re going to be a major problem, and it’s going to hurt us from governing from the middle.”
