“Moving forward, we have to find a way to start closing that gap and make sure the state doesn’t spend more money than it needs; Unfortunately, the budget passed by the House would make this problem much, much worse,” Martin said in an emailed response to questions about the budget.
The House bill would spend more than $45 billion, a $6 billion increase over the current year’s budget, including nearly $2 billion in total education spending and $200 million in funds special to pay for home repairs. It would also add $1 billion to the budget proposed in Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s initial budget.
The tax revenue produced a budget surplus this year: Pennsylvania collected about $41.2 billion in General Fund revenue, or $1.2 billion more than estimated, according to Acting Revenue Secretary Pat Browne.
The state also has about $12 billion available in its rainy day fund.
House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler of Drumore Township notes that any Senate amendment will be sent back to the House for approval. And at that time Cutler could have added influence given the Democrats’ one-seat majority in the House.
He also believes the House is looking to spend too much money.
“The idea that they couldn’t execute the governor’s budget was a little bit of a surprise to me,” Cutler said. “The budget is really a financial document that highlights their priorities and their No. 1 priority you see there is just spending money.”
His Democratic colleagues on the Lancaster City Council, Smith-Wade-El and Sturla, say the spending is necessary to address declining education quality across the state.
“It’s not like all of a sudden, because we took the majority, money starts growing on trees,” Sturla said. “We won’t fix the education funding crisis in this budget, but I believe we can continue to move forward with adequate and equitable funding.”
Last year, the Pennsylvania Department of Education released the results of state standardized test scores for the 2021 school year, which showed that about 77 percent of eighth-graders were less proficient in math , while 44% were below English language arts and 48%. The % was below in science.
“If we don’t put the money in now, we’re going to see increased costs later,” Sturla said.
Smith-Wade-El also agreed to new education funding and added support for the home repair fund.
“It’s a job that should have been done 10 years ago, but I’m glad we’re the people here to do it now,” he said.
What do voters want?
Aument said that while he doesn’t think there is “any support” for the proposal from House Republicans, he believes the bill is “an important step in the process.”
The budget was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, where it will face amendments from the Republican-led chamber. Once those changes are made, they will be sent back to the House for approval before Shapiro can sign it into law. The governor also has the power to delete specific spending provisions using his “blue line” veto power.
All of this must be done by the end of the month, or spending by some state agencies and employees could be halted until it is approved. The budget is often late, but it was signed in time before funds to pay state workers were cut. Last year’s budget was signed on July 8.
Pennsylvania experienced one of the longest state budget impasses in history in 2015, after the Republican-led General Assembly and then-Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf couldn’t reach an agreement. It was approved without Wolf’s approval in March 2016.
Yost, who runs the Franklin & Marshall College poll, said voters are “all split” on issues they want addressed in the budget.
The April poll results show that the top issues for Pennsylvanians are economic issues, crime and education; Yost said only one issue stood out from the rest.
“A major concern of Pennsylvanians when asked about state government is the concern about whether they can govern effectively,” he said. “Just passing a budget on time would be a priority for Pennsylvania.”
About 17 percent of survey respondents said “government” and “politicians” are the “biggest problem facing Pennsylvania,” trending down in recent years but still is placed as the second best ranked individual subject.
Yost believes this year’s fiscal surplus will lead lawmakers, even conservative Republicans, to be more open to compromise. He said most budget delays occur when there are revenue problems in the state; without those pressures this year, Yost said a one-time budget is more likely.
“It always seems to come down to the wire,” he said. “But I think this particular year, they’re likely to happen.”
