With the Pennsylvania General Assembly officially starting its new legislative session this January, now is a good time to take stock of the legislative proposals affecting municipalities that were approved by the Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf during the 2017-2018 session. In the last two years close to 250 bills were signed into law by the governor; this article will examine 13 of them.

The bill that likely kept some municipal officials and employees up at night was Act 43 of 2017—but not in a way the Assembly would have foreseen. Act 43 amended numerous provisions of the state’s Tax Reform Code, including the laws regulating and taxing the sale of fireworks. Intended principally as a revenue raiser, Act 43 expanded the classes of consumer fireworks that could be sold to Pennsylvania residents, and taxed such sales at a new, higher 12 percent rate. Under prior law fireworks retailers were only permitted to sell those more powerful classes of fireworks to residents of other states. Act 43 legalized the sale of those products to Pennsylvania residents, and permitted sales in temporary structures (tents) during the “peak” season around Independence Day and New Year’s Eve.