October 21, 2025 | 5:05 PM
Jaxon White/WITF
I report on how decisions made in Pennsylvania’s state Capitol ripple across communities throughout the commonwealth. My coverage centers on the General Assembly, the Governor’s Office and the broader landscape of Pennsylvania politics.
I’m especially interested in the development and regulation of artificial intelligence, how public officials manage taxpayer dollars and policy ideas aimed at addressing everyday — and sometimes overlooked — challenges.
I grew up just north of Pittsburgh in Beaver County, Pa., and graduated from Bucknell University in 2023. My first reporting gig was at LNP | LancasterOnline as a politics reporter, before I started at WITF in the summer of 2025.
Amanda Berg / Spotlight PA
Pennsylvania State Capitol building in Harrisburg on July 26, 2023.
For the second time, Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed a budget bill that would largely fund schools, counties and nonprofits at last year’s levels.
Like the previously passed Senate bill and the two budget bills passed by House Democrats since June 30, the vote on Tuesday was just for show. Lawmakers are no closer to cutting a spending deal, placing the state on the cusp of a four-month impasse between the Legislature’s two chambers and Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.
Senate Republicans’ bill is a nearly $48 billion spending plan. It passed in a party-line 27-23 vote about two weeks after Senate Republicans and House Democrats lobbed verbal attacks over budget talks in a series of news conferences in the Capitol.
During a heated floor debate Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, pinned the impasse on Shapiro and House Democrats.
“One day and one vote,” Pittman said, “That’s all we need from the House Democrats…”
Pittman said the GOP’s budget is one “based on needs,” not “wants.”
Shapiro and House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, have said Senate Republicans are stalling budget talks to harm Shapiro’s bid for reelection next year.
Shapiro, at an unrelated news conference in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, called the Senate GOP’s proposal “a joke.”
“It doesn’t actually meet the obligations of this Commonwealth,” he added.
Bradford’s spokeswoman, Beth Rementer, echoed Shapiro’s response, calling the pitch an “unserious” budget.
“It is a mindless regurgitation of last year’s budget,” she said.
What’s the holdup?
Republicans argue Pennsylvania does not have enough money to pay for Democrats’ spending plan and insist lawmakers need to find areas to cut costs. They’ve particularly eyed reforms to the state’s public education funding mechanism, pointing to a statewide decline in class sizes.
Appropriations Chair Scott Martin, R-Lancaster, summed up the GOP’s argument on the Senate floor Tuesday.
“You can only get away with one-time sources of revenue (once), before it’s exhausted,” Martin shouted, referencing the fact that much of Pennsylvania’s reserves were built with COVID-era stimulus. “Then you’re left with a massive budget hole.”
Democrats have pointed to the $11 billion reserves to argue that Pennsylvania has enough money to address immediate needs, including acting on the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that found the state inadequately funds some public schools.
“This does nothing to get us to a compromise. Absolutely nothing,” Philadelphia Sen. Vincent Hughes, Democrats’ ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, said of the GOP’s spending plan. “This is essentially last year’s budget… (it) does not advance anything, does not move the ball, does not get us closer to an arrangement.”
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.