Loophole

City officials need to get rid of a loophole in Philadelphia's campaign-finance law that lets deep-pocketed donors skirt contribution limits. This legal end run nullifies the city's rules that prohibit a political-action committee from giving more than $10,600 to any individual candidate each year. The campaign-giving limits, which Mayor Nutter supported as a City Council member, are designed to minimize the potential impact on city policy by any one donor or political committee.

WHAT IS the so-called "Florida loophole," and why is it such a bone of contention in Philadelphia? Under reciprocity agreements with Florida and some other states, Pennsylvanians can get nonresident permits from those states through the mail to carry concealed weapons, even without a Pennsylvania permit. Philly cops say it allows people who have been denied a gun permit in Philadelphia to circumvent local authorities. But gun-rights advocates say that it's necessary, because the Philadelphia Police Department is much stricter on applicants than other counties in the state.

The Haddon Township Board of Commissioners introduced an amendment Tuesday night to strengthen the township's rent-control ordinance. Officials said the amendment, if approved, would close a loophole used successfully last month by a landlord in an appeal for a hardship rent increase. Commissioner Gerald DeFelicis said the amendment would require certification by the rent-control officer that the building was inspected and found to be in compliance with township building codes no more than 90 days before the application for the hardship increase.

The Federal Communications Commission will seek to close a loophole that has kept Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers games off satellite TV in Philadelphia and given a huge competitive advantage to Comcast Corp. An FCC official said the agency would circulate an order today that will close the "terrestrial loophole" that allows Comcast to withhold Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia from DirecTV and Dish Network. The five-member regulatory board could vote on the order in January. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says the loophole should be closed to level the competitive playing field among pay-TV companies, a commission official said.

When lobbyists spend thousands of dollars on legislators, buying them football tickets, expensive dinners and trips to Florida golf resorts, nobody has to report that money as long as the lawmakers and lobbyists don't "expressly" discuss pending legislation. That loophole in New Jersey's lobbying law is supposed to be closed when the legislature follows a blue-ribbon ethics panel's recommendation that all the money spent earning the goodwill of legislators be publicly reported - whether or not legislation is discussed.

IT SURPRISED US to learn that the word "loophole" dates back to the 16th century, describing a small hole in the wall through which an arrow or gun might be fired. We were sure it was going to have its origins as an electrical term, since the electricians union is particularly adept at finding them. The city's attempt to reform campaign finance rules in 2006 managed to impose a $10,600 contribution limit to candidates from a single Political Action Committee, but neglected to cover contributions from multiple PACs in the same organization.

Delaware motorists who refuse breath tests or blood-alcohol samples automatically lose their driver's licenses for a year. It's the law. Yet about 30 percent of Delawareans arrested for drunken driving now drive straight through a legal loophole and back onto the road, months before they should be allowed, according to Frank Carver, chairman of a state task force that is revising the law. The loophole exists in part of the 1982 drunken-driving law...

Your editorial "Flawed law" (Aug. 27) highlighted several problems with Pennsylvania's gaming law. In particular, it hit one of our most serious flaws in state government as a whole: the loophole that allows lawyers to sidestep the revolving-door ban from state employment to private industry and back again. This issue has plagued us since the Supreme Court decision in Gmerek v. State Ethics Commission, which held that the court has the "exclusive authority to regulate the practice of law. " Attacking the Lobbyist Registration Law, the plaintiff challenged the authority of the State Ethics Commission to regulate the conduct of lobbyists who happened to be lawyers.

More than a year after it became a hot campaign issue in the race for Pennsylvania governor, it's even more critical that Harrisburg lawmakers close the so-called Florida loophole that lets Philadelphia gun owners skirt the city's strict handgun-carrying rules. With a renewed push in Congress to nationalize concealed-weapon permits so that any state-issued handgun permit would be valid across the country, the public-safety stakes could loom even larger. As many as 900 city residents - more per capita than in any other among the nation's 10 largest cities - are now packing heat in Philadelphia by virtue of mail-order permits issued by Florida.

Last year, the Pennsylvania legislature closed many loopholes in the Rendell-era Taxpayer Relief Act, also known as Act 1, with lawmakers and Corbett administration officials proclaiming that, finally, residents would get more say on school-tax increases. But one year in, that has not happened. Act 1, passed in 2006, calls for voter referendums on proposed property-tax increases that exceed an annually set education inflation rate, called the "index. " For 2012-13 budgets, the index is 1.7 percent.

How much longer are Pennsylvania leaders going to treat thousands of casino, tavern, and other workers like second-class citizens when it comes to protecting them from deadly secondhand smoke? Some 3 ½ years after the state enacted its indoor smoke-free law, those employees continue to be exposed to cigarette smoke on the job at 2,800 workplaces that weren't covered by the 2008 ban. It's time to close the loopholes, which the smoke-free law author - State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R., Montgomery)

In an election year, it's no surprise that President Obama's proposed changes in business taxes have been rudely received by congressional Republicans. Once again, the public's eagerness for bipartisanship is ignored. But Obama knew the likely reception he would get, so he is being accused of playing politics, too, by offering the opposition something they had to refuse or risk being seen as cooperating with a president they are trying to convince voters isn't worthy of reelection.

WASHINGTON - President Obama rolled out a corporate tax overhaul plan Wednesday that lowers rates but also eliminates loopholes and subsidies cherished by the business world. A long-shot for action in an election year, the plan nevertheless stamps Obama's imprint on one of the most high-profile issues of the presidential campaign. The president's plan to lower the corporate tax rate to 28 percent came on the same day Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney called for a 20 percent across-the-board cut in personal income tax rates, underscoring the potency of taxes as a political issue, especially during a modest economic recovery.

Pennsylvania regulators are taking steps to begin safety checks of some natural gas pipelines in the Marcellus Shale regions - hiring inspectors and drafting new rules that will bring the state in line with the rest of the nation. But a dispute continues over whether the state oversight goes far enough. The new safety-inspection and construction regulations still will not apply in the most rural areas of shale country, the hotbed for new pipeline projects, with up to 25,000 miles being built or on the drawing boards.

Bob Martin is a retired Inquirer editor and writer If the anomalies of Pennsylvania politics and government need a human face, here are six: Michael Helfrich, Francis "Shorty" Schultz, Stephen Rambler, Terry McGirth, Deborah Shelton Griffin, and Pete Cianci. All six were convicted of felonies, yet held - or now hold - political office. Yet the Pennsylvania Constitution and subsequent court rulings render felons ineligible to serve. All took an oath to support, obey, and defend the constitution of Pennsylvania, then immediately violated it by taking office.

It's one of the disturbing mysteries in the case against Linda Ann Weston, an ex-offender accused of imprisoning four intellectually challenged adults in a Frankford basement and stealing their benefits: Why did the Social Security Administration allow her to collect their money? As investigators try to answer that, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) is proposing a bill that would close a loophole in the Social Security system to prevent an ex-offender like Weston from bilking victims. Weston was convicted in 1984 of third-degree murder for starving to death her sister's boyfriend.

WASHINGTON - Republicans showed new signs of flexibility to break a budget impasse Wednesday, but the White House raised the ante - pushing for more deficit reduction and taking a pugnacious tone casting the GOP as defenders of corporate tax giveaways. The repositioning by both sides appeared to open new compromise possibilities a day before President Obama was set to host the bipartisan congressional leadership for new talks on the budget. The secret negotiations were gaining new urgency because they are tied to an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the government's borrowing authority.

WASHINGTON - Even as the political battle rages over federal spending, the end result for federal policy already is visible - and clearly favors Republican goals of deep spending cuts and drastically reduced government services. President Obama entered the fray last week to insist that federal deficits cannot be reduced through spending cuts alone. Tax revenues also must rise as part of whatever deficit-reduction package Congress approves this summer, he said. Obama has been pushing to end a series of what he calls tax loopholes and tax breaks for the rich.