HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Two months into Pennsylvania’s budget stalemate, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R) said his caucus would be open to a $49 billion plan to end the gridlock.

But a final deal — which landed on a not very different $50.09 billion — wouldn’t come for another two months, leaving municipalities and counties scraping for funding during a parallel federal shutdown. Some wondered if the date of the deal, just a week after Election Day, had anything to do with it.

“Not at all,” Pittman said in an interview with This Week in Pennsylvania. “What people don’t realize outside of this building is it takes days and days to put the words on paper, and at the end of the day, the words on paper matter.”

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Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats started to distill days before the election and the deal to end the federal shutdown, creating “no correlation,” Pittman added.

Now that lawmakers came to a deal, they’re already looking ahead to next year’s budget discussions.

Republicans voted for a much higher number than they would’ve liked, though Pittman said that’s because they were able to find $3 billion in the “couch cushions of bureaucracy.” He’s already promised to be more aggressive with appropriated funds next year.

Democratic House Appropriations Chair Rep. Jordan Harris said there’s no couch cushions, just good budget management.

“We’ve always estimated conservatively, which is why every budget for the last few years, there’s been money left on our balance sheet,” Harris said. “That’s why we have a robust rainy day fund coming out of the Wolf years and going into the Shapiro years.”

But this year’s budget allocates more dollars than the state plans to make back. So, where will lawmakers look for cash next?

Watch This Week in Pennsylvania on the video player above to find out.

PLUS! Watch extended interviews with Pittman and Harris below:

Every week, This Week in Pennsylvania gives a comprehensive look at the week’s biggest news events in Pennsylvania, provided by the abc27 News team, along with the latest updates on local stories.

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