Long before he was in line to be president pro tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate, Jay Costa stood guard in an Allegheny County courtroom as a deputy sheriff. Also a law student at the time, he watched and learned.
“I got the opportunity to see firsthand how lawyers acted in courtrooms,” Costa said. “… I’m guarding the prisoner and also watching firsthand.”
After law school and a stint as the county’s register of wills, Costa won a seat in the Senate in 1996.
His time working courtroom security had something in common with his decades in the Senate’s minority caucus. He has been at or near the table where decisions have been made, learned how Harrisburg deals are cut and how money flows through state government — but as a member of the minority and its leader since 2010, he was not calling the shots.
After Democrats netted three Senate seats in last week’s midterms, Costa is poised to lead the chamber as Pittsburgh’s point-man in Harrisburg’s new triangle of power linking the Senate with the House and governor’s mansion. His 31st year in the Senate will be his first in the majority.
Pennsylvania has had a Democratic governor for 20 of the past 24 years, but Republicans’ dominance in the state Senate stalled many Democratic priorities over the years. What should people expect once that cork is out of the bottle in January?
Costa said priorities for passage “right away” include:
- Increasing the $7.25 minimum wage
- Enshrining reproductive freedom in statute and the state constitution
- Creating a dedicated revenue stream for mass transit funding
- Legislation to address healthcare costs.
“Finally we’re going to be able to close the loop on many of these matters that are going to help people’s lives,” Costa said.
Costa’s rise from courtroom security to Senate leader
“I don’t know a person up there that doesn’t respect [Costa],” said Nello Giorgetti, senior vice president of government relations at Harrisburg-based lobbying firm C&G Strategies and former Costa chief of staff.
Respect for Costa locally runs the gamut from the left flank of his own party, in progressive County Executive Sara Innamorato, to Sen. Devlin Robinson, the only Republican senator from Allegheny County.
Robinson, of Bridgeville, called Costa a “good friend.”
“He has a lot of experience, he has a lot of knowledge,” Robinson said. “He’s seen a lot of bills come up and I think that he’ll do what he thinks is best.
“We have worked together on a number of bills to move Allegheny County forward. I think he’s a pragmatic person and he’ll be pragmatic in whatever office he possesses.”
Innamorato praised his “moral compass,” citing his support for her paid parental leave proposal.
“When we asked him to stand with us, he was there because he knows it’s something that’s right for working families,” Innamorato said.
“From the minority he’s been able to deliver big things for Allegheny County in partnership with my administration,” Innamorato said, citing $5 million in funding for the county’s Area Agency on Aging that replaced lost federal funding. “I think he is primed to step up and actually set an agenda.”
Costa graduated from Allderdice High School and then attended Community College of Allegheny County and Indiana University of Pennsylvania to study criminal justice with the goal of becoming a police officer. After a brief stint as a substitute teacher, he became a deputy in the Allegheny County sheriff’s department and simultaneously enrolled at Duquesne Law School.
He said his duties as a deputy sheriff included transporting prisoners, courtroom security and occasional deployment as a supplemental municipal police officer.
He came from a political family; his father, Jay Costa Sr., was elected county treasurer in 1979 and died while holding that office in 1989. The younger Costa jumped from law enforcement to politics when the now-defunct county register of wills office opened up. He moved from there to the Senate in 1996.
“He’s been around a long time, he knows the history of things, and he knows all those things that we haven’t been able to get done,” said Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-West View.
Costa said his time as minority chair of the Appropriations Committee was particularly instructive. Going to the governor’s residence during budget negotiations and hearing from agencies about their budget requests “was a tremendous learning experience.”
Will his leadership style change with newfound power? Costa said the only change will be the results.
“The strength of the voice has changed,” Costa said. “I’ve been there at the table but I haven’t been able to bring the votes to do what we needed to do so we needed to compromise. Our position is stronger today than it was last week.”
‘We can actually do that now’
Williams went from asking “Am I dreaming?” about the results of Tuesday’s legislative elections to rattling off policies she hopes Senate Democrats pass next year with their newly won majority.
Her list went from big items, like marijuana legalization and transit funding, to details such as improving boating safety laws and adding funding for school counselors.
“We can actually do that now,” she said, reflecting on a Democratic trifecta in Harrisburg not seen since early in Bill Clinton’s presidency.
With the governor and House speaker from Eastern Pennsylvania, Costa will be the west’s most prominent representative in Harrisburg.
“With so much of House leadership being from Philly and Eastern Pennsylvania, it’s good to have someone from Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania that will be at that table,” Giorgetti said. “That’s not to say [House Speaker Joanna McClinton] doesn’t care about Western Pennsylvania, because she certainly does … but it’s good to have someone from here that can offer the perspective of Western Pennsylvania’s needs and desires.”
Without delving into specifics, Costa said he will work closely with city and county leaders to address their challenges, and that urban and suburban areas will get more attention from the Senate than they did in the past.
Transit a top priority
“One of those examples is transit funding,” he said. “In urban areas, transit funding is an important matter, and it’s less important to our rural colleagues,” who, Costa said, prioritize road and highway infrastructure.
Pittsburgh Regional Transit has long been strapped for cash, and was pushed to the brink of drastic cuts last year when lawmakers were delayed in passing a state budget. The agency canceled its bus route redesign initiative during the funding impasse but has since revived it.
The shift in Harrisburg could have agency leaders dreaming big. A proposal on the agency’s website that outlines what it could do with 20% more service hours calls for:
- Increasing frequency across bus routes and running bus routes later into the night
- Creating new direct connections to the airport from the South Hills and North Hills
- Creating circulator bus routes serving the North Hills, Reserve Township, McKees Rocks, Oakland and Pleasant Hills.
Williams said she would be open to talking with county officials about what additional powers they would like the state to grant them that they currently lack.
Philadelphia has taxing powers that Allegheny County doesn’t, she said, “and we need the authority to do it so we can raise revenue for public transit.”
Senate could take parental leave statewide
Innamorato is fresh off a major policy achievement: the enactment of a paid parental leave mandate for many people who work in the county. But she said the next General Assembly could not only take the policy statewide, but expand its impact here in Allegheny County.
She said the county’s policy, which is set to take effect in 2027, lacks provisions for medical leave and coverage for sole proprietors. She noted that the state House passed a bill to set up paid leave and insurance statewide, but it has not been addressed by the Senate.
“That moving forward really would help expand that benefit to even more families who are growing here in Allegheny County and across the commonwealth,” Innamorato said.
A lifeline for the county, city
Mayor Corey O’Connor said during his annual budget address Monday that the midterms were a win for the city’s “collective voices” and that he expects more funding for housing and infrastructure projects.
“It will allow us to do things in our city that we have not been able to do in over 30 years,” O’Connor said while unveiling a spending plan that was otherwise focused on controlling costs.
Innamorato also hinted at getting Harrisburg’s help with one of the county’s most daunting problems — a $1.4 billion shortfall in the county’s pension fund. She said the state legislature could pass a law freeing up the county to collect more revenue to fill the gap, which officials have estimated will require a $100 million annual investment.
“We have to raise money,” Innamorato said. “There’s a menu of options. That’s still in the discussion phase. A lot of people point to the sales tax because that gets you the most money.”
The county currently levies a 1% sales tax on top of the 6% that goes to the state. The county can’t increase that rate without the state’s approval.
Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
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