House Democrats send new budget proposal to Senate on 100th day of impasse in Pennsylvania

Senate Republican leaders said they couldn’t vote on the plan without more time to examine changes.

In the first public action in nearly two months amidst the state budget impasse, lawmakers in the Democratic-led House approved a $50.25 billion spending proposal and sent it to the Senate for consideration.

The 105-98 vote Wednesday followed an afternoon of heated rhetoric and finger pointing by House Democrats and Senate Republicans on the 100th day since the June 30 budget deadline passed without an agreement.

Pennsylvania is the only state in the country without some form of spending plan in place for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

The general appropriations bill, passed with the support of three GOP lawmakers, calls for a $2.4 billion  increase – or 5.1% – in spending over the 2024-2025 budget. It represents a further $300 million reduction in spending over a budget proposal the chamber passed in July.

It includes $565 million more for the commonwealth’s least wealthy school districts, as part of a plan to correct decades of inequality in the state’s education funding system. It also would provide $105 million more for basic education and $40 million more for special education.

And it includes more than $785 million in savings for school districts as a result of a statewide tuition rate for cyber charter schools that the House passed in June.

Major reductions in spending include cutting $49 million in state funding (on top of about $11 million in federal cuts) from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and $38 million cut from the Department of Health due to $47 million in federal cuts.

The House budget is an amendment to Senate Bill 160, which was identical to the prior fiscal year’s budget.

Senate Republicans said Wednesday they weren’t prepared to hold a vote without adequate time to review the House plan. Both chambers adjourned until later this month.

“We have no idea what they’re doing over there,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) said Wednesday before the vote. He added that Senate leaders have heard little from Democrats since Gov. Josh Shapiro inked a temporary fix for a transit funding crisis, which was an initial major sticking point in negotiations.

“The degree of communication between the administration and House Democrats has been sparse at best,” Pittman told reporters.

Following the vote, Gov. Josh Shapiro excoriated Senate Republicans for going into recess without taking action.

“At some point, the Senate has to stop making excuses and show up for work to do their jobs. I spent the entire summer running back and forth between leader [Matt] Bradford and leader Pittman. I brought them together to have dialogue,” Shapiro said.

He called the Democratic proposal “a real compromise,” and said the budget will “cut taxes” and “protect the rainy day fund,” which are longtime conservative priorities.

Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland) said the Democratic proposals have been too expensive, drawing down the state’s $3 billion budget surplus and rainy day fund, which reached a record $7.04 billion last month.

Shapiro’s Feb. 4 proposal called for spending the surplus and drawing $1.6 billion from the rainy day fund to balance the budget.

“I kept hearing today … ‘We’re not calling for a tax increase.’ Well, you might not be using those words, but when you’re spending that much more than what we are bringing in, you’re calling for a tax increase,” Ward said.

Shapiro also noted three Republicans voted for the House bill, and that Democratic leaders in the Senate believe they could achieve a unanimous vote in their caucus.

“There are obviously dynamics within the Senate Republican caucus that are making it very difficult for their leaders to find the necessary votes,” Shapiro said. “Here’s the thing though, that’s their job.”

Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia) said the upper chamber’s 23 Democrats were ready to vote for the compromise the House first passed in July. With the additional concessions in the bill passed Wednesday, Hughes expressed confidence it would receive enough Republican votes to pass.

Hughes accused Senate Republicans of playing politics ahead of Shapiro’s reelection bid next year. He is expected to face a challenge from Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who is running for the party’s nomination. Garrity has inserted herself into budget politics by offering low-interest loans to county governments and head start programs. It has since been expanded to domestic violence prevention and rape survivor support groups.

On Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill that would allow her department to forgive the interest on those loans.

“These folks are putting the people last for political reasons for political purposes. They see their assessment as … you know, if we just delayed a budget and delayed a budget, that’s going to make all the Democrats look bad,” Hughes said.

Asked about the allegation, Pittman said his caucus wants responsible government and that Republicans have worked during the first two years of Shapiro’s term to bring compromises to the bargaining table.

“I think he’s using that as a very poor excuse, because he’s not had the ability to bring a divided legislature that he talked so much about together on a consensus product,” Pittman said.

House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D-Montgomery) said part of leading is persuading followers to accept difficult compromises.

“If you can’t tell the public, we’re not going to get everything we want and we have to compromise, then you shouldn’t be in leadership, and you damn well shouldn’t lead a caucus,” Bradford said.

But House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) said that despite frequent assurances the budget was “at the one-yard” line, Senate leaders have refused to negotiate in good faith, following “their leader in Washington, D.C.”

“We’ve got rape crisis centers closing. We’ve got county offices laying people off. We have senior centers closing their doors in Westmoreland and Indiana counties,” House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) said. “This is not a good afternoon, because it’s been 100 days, and the Senate Republicans are shutting this state government down.”