Senator in pain after accident
Appropriations Chairman Pat Browne was on a motorcycle.
HARRISBURG - A Pennsylvania Senate leader who has a pivotal role in budget negotiations and plans to address public-sector pension funding was in considerable pain Monday, two days after a motorcycle accident in Allentown, an aide said.
Ellen Kern, chief of staff to Appropriations Chairman Pat Browne (R., Lehigh), said Browne sustained a punctured lung, cracked ribs, and a broken foot from the Saturday wreck along I-78.
State police are investigating the crash as a potential DUI but no charges have been filed.
"The good news is that he's stable," Kern said.
Police said Browne, 51, was westbound on a 2011 Harley-Davidson when he lost control on the Leigh Street off-ramp and the motorcycle slid on its side.
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, a political ally, said Browne's wife told him that Browne had foot surgery Sunday. .
Senate Republicans are poised to unveil a 400-page bill that would make major structural changes to public pensions. Scarnati said the chamber plans to vote next week on the bill.
Browne also is a leading negotiator on education funding and the budget, which is due by the end of June.
"There is nobody that has a higher degree of understanding and knowledge in this chamber, and possibly the whole building, on pensions, budget, and school funding as Pat," Scarnati said.
Browne's driver's license was suspended after drunken-driving crashes in 1995 and 1999. In the 1999 case, court records indicate he pleaded guilty and received a 30-day sentence.
He told the AP in 2010 that he served it as 30 days in alcohol treatment.
"I've become more familiar and more adept on the issues related to addiction and recovery," Browne said five years ago. "It's something that's faced me personally and something I live with every day."
Browne spent a decade in the House before winning a Senate seat in 2005.