Is the GOP-controlled legislature picking on Philadelphia?
HARRISBURG – No sooner had they been sworn in last month, Republicans in the Senate began pushing bills to kill Philadelphia’s new effort to narrow the pay gap between men and women, withhold hundreds of millions in state dollars over its sanctuary city status and abolish its groundbreaking sick-leave law.
Similar bills are expected to soon be introduced in the House.
The Republicans insist their agenda is not an attack on Philadelphia or any other urban area. They note the GOP-controlled legislature sends hundreds of millions of state dollars to Philadelphia every year, and has come through for the city every time it comes knocking on Capitol doors for approval to raise taxes.
But their emphasis right out of the gate on voiding some of the city’s most progressive policies has raised the specter of a rise in anti-Philadelphia sentiment in the Capitol, one that could lead to a clash between the overwhelmingly Democratic city’s liberal sensibility and the legislature’s biggest modern-day conservative majorities.
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