Public Safety
The City of Philadelphia is a great place to live, work and raise a family, but above all, our communities need to be safe. Through legislative initiatives and community partnerships with organizations like CeaseFire PA, I am working to tackle gun violence and to stop the proliferation of guns in our neighborhoods. I also continue to call on the Pennsylvania legislature to enforce existing gun legislation, increase penalties for people who commit gun violence, end straw purchases and close the Florida Loophole. My legislation (SB 622) will stop Pennsylvania residents who have been denied a license to carry a gun in Pennsylvania the ability to get one from another state. I am also:
- Sponsoring Caylee’s Law, which mandates reporting after a child’s death or disappearance;
- Creating an animal abuse registry; and
- Stopping deed theft.
Some of my recent successes include:
- Obtaining a $100,000 state grant to help bring back the Philadelphia Police Mounted Unit. This private sector and Philadelphia Police Foundation partnership has restored a police unit that is not only vital to crowd control and public safety, but stands as a community ambassador of good will;
- Ensuring that those who enforce the law and prosecute crimes have the resources they need through increased funding for witness protection efforts and the Gun Violence Task Force;
- Joining to unanimously approve Senate Bill 369 which provides relief to families of fallen first responders;
- As a member of Judiciary Committee, I held hearings to ensure that state police have the resources they need to quickly process DNA evidence and identify criminals;
- Banning bath salts; and
- Secured grants to boost the volunteer fundraising efforts of many neighborhood public safety initiatives; for example, the South Street Police Mini Station and Victim Witness Service of South Philadelphia.
Quality of Life
In addition to public safety, quality of life is more than vibrant communities and good schools, it is a healthy nightlife, it is good parks and neighborhood recreation; it is access to quality health care, protection of the  environment and preservation of individual liberties. So, I’ve worked for the following:
- Secured funding to save the 2009 Mummers parade and Chinatown New Year’s festivities;
- Forced PennDOT to complete the installation of I-95 sound barriers in Pennsport;
- Obtained funding for community parks and neighborhood athletic associations;
- Created a new task force to address the growing nightlife around Rittenhouse Square in addition to helping the Center City Residents Association establish its new liquor committee;
- To protect our neighborhoods, my office monitors liquor license transfers and is dedicated to stopping nuisance bars. We also serve on Liquor Nuisance Task Forces in Old City and Northern Liberties to help community leaders and local officials protect their neighborhoods;
- As a member of the Hunger Caucus, I’m promoting neighborhood farmers markets, distributing Philabundance emergency food supplies at my District Office and have partnered with the Brown’s Family Market to supply holiday turkeys to the elderly and needy;
- My office and I have provided soccer balls and phone cards for military families, collected used blankets for area dog shelters, held several senior expos a year and donated bikes to children for the holidays;
- I support a woman’s right to choose by speaking out against Republican efforts to use the Dr. Gosnell tragedy as a way to restrict access to lawful abortions statewide (SB 732 of 2011);
- I’ve sponsored legislation to prohibit discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation, and I’m proud to be a founding member of the Bipartisan General Assembly’s LGBT Caucus;
- I have supported increased funding for early childhood education and sponsored legislation to promote financial literacy in schools; and finally
- When it comes to the environment, I support a tax on Marcellus Shale drilling to fund enforcement and environmental impacts, sponsored legislation with Sen. Mike Stack to require full disclosure of chemicals used in the fracking process and am proud to be named a Sierra Club and Clean Water Action “Environmental Hero” with a 115 percent rating.
Economic Development and Job Creation
I represent a hard working district, and I’ll do all I can to create jobs, strengthen our industries and propose smart legislation with targeted public investments. Our ports represent one of the most promising areas of growth for the 21st century. I’m fighting for continued state funding of the Philadelphia River Port Authority (PRPA) so we can expand and improve our port facilities. For example, development of dormant parcels of land for the Hyundai/Kia auto processing facility at Pier 98. This enterprise provides more than 600 family sustaining, union jobs and annual tax revenues in excess of $12 million. I’m also proud of ongoing work with Rep. Bill Keller to create the Southport Marine Terminal from 180 acres of unused land on the eastern edge of the Navy Yard. This facility will allow Philadelphia to remain competitive in our global economy and create thousands of new port jobs. I’ve also:
- Been supporting the city’s multi-billion dollar expansion of the Philadelphia International Airport, a project which will create thousands of jobs and support businesses vital to Philadelphia economy;
- Secured capital funds to spur the development of the Delaware and Schuylkill River waterfronts, including state funding for the new Race Street Pier;
- Support plans to build light rail on the Delaware River waterfront and extend the Broad Street line to the Navy Yard;
- Proposed a targeted extension of the 15-year tax abatement program to spur development and generate needed construction jobs;
- Expanded state programs to increase the development of clean energy projects;
- Supported the state’s $30 million investment in Penn State’s new energy innovation cluster at the Navy Yard – one of only three in the country – and a Solar Energy Grant for Tastykake Inc.;
- Successfully led the fight to stop proposed taxes on the arts and professional services in 2009 and 2010;
- Worked to restore arts funding cut by House Republicans in 2011, which saved the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grants to dozens of organizations in the district; and
- Secured capital funding for museums, community service and hotel developments, building improvements at Moore College of Art, a new rehearsal facility for the Pennsylvania Ballet, as well as select tourism and hospitality developments to support the convention and tourism industry that generates jobs and growth.
Better Government
Pennsylvanians deserve transparent, effective and responsive government. I’m proud to have authored a key provision of state law that ended the Deferred Retirement Options Plan (DROP) for elected officials statewide (HB1828 of 2009 Senate Amendment A03599). Additionally, I’ve:
- Sponsored bi-partisan legislation to enact campaign finance limits and require online filing of campaign finance reports for instant public access;
- Introduced legislation to restrict pay-to-play contributions by those seeking to do business with the state;
- Successfully led the fight to restore the ban on campaign contributions by casino operators;
- Joined with Mayor Nutter to replace the scandal-plagued Penn’s Landing Corporation with the new Delaware River Waterfront Corporation; and
- Helped craft new Senate ethics rules, and regular training, for members and staff.