CHAMBERSBURG – In Pennsylvania, after the governor announces his plans for the new budget, that’s when lawmakers get to work. 

They hold what are called appropriations hearings and they bring in heads of different departments to dig into what they’re asking for, what’s realistic, what should be cut and where there might be waste. 

Since Governor Josh Shapiro unveiled his 2026-27 budget to the tune of $53.2 billion in spending, the PA House of Representatives has been talking financial figures with a number of different groups. 

PA Representative Jesse Topper said, “There is value to this in terms of, we have the opportunity as members to directly question cabinet secretaries, kind of put them on the record, which I think is always important. We use these hearings during our budget negotiations. And sometimes you can also get people to, quite frankly, tell the truth as to where the money’s going and I think that’s very important. I respect our appropriations team that’s going to be there for three weeks doing this, a lot of work, but I appreciate what they’re doing, because we understand what we’re facing in terms of the budget. Once again, not just this year, but in the future, things have to change. We have to root out some of the, well, I’ll say inefficiencies in best case scenario, and I’ll say fraud and abuse in worst case scenario.”

Michele Jansen of News Talk 103.7FM pointed out, “One thing that was talked about the DHH, the Department of Health and Human Services, biggest budget is my understanding of the different departments, of course, has a lot to do with health care, and we know that’s exploding. The Medicaid spend in Pennsylvania and whether or not there is waste, fraud and abuse going on there. Now, I heard the Secretary say, something about, oh, our numbers show that we’re doing better and there’s less of waste and fraud. However, I’m hearing national reports talking about the amount of increase in Medicaid spending since and of course, part of this is because of Obamacare and the state’s version Pennie of that. And many, many, many more people being put on Medicaid. And then there’s the state share in the federal share. But I’m a little worried about that huge increase since then, they say it seems to be disproportionate, and how much of that might be fraud? The secretary said providers are responsible for most of the fraud, but then, it’s my understanding, they’re not being held accountable by the state very well. I know there were some reforms you all tried to put into place last year.” 

Topper said, “Sure, because at some point people are just guessing and with some of those reforms, I’ll give you the first one, it required the Department of Human Services to actually check death certificates with the Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics against the receipts of medical assistance and SNAP. We weren’t doing that, at least there was no indication that that was being done on a regular basis. I mean, it’s as simple as trying to figure out if the people who are receiving benefits for the family are still alive, requiring the Department of Human Services to check income and employment records with the Department of Labor and Industry. We have these departments that these bureaucracies that have gotten so big they’re not even talking to each other on some of these very basic issues that we were having people who were deceased or who were no longer in the income bracket, still receiving benefits. Whether that’s intentional or not, that’s fraud and abuse of the system. We had several of those reports that we’re requiring now from the Department of Human Services, they have to report how lottery winnings, the value of of automobiles, actually reflect into a recipient and eligibility, so that we don’t have people out there driving BMWs and pulling into a local food bank to use benefits. These are the things that are common sense, but are not being done, and we’re hoping that that will lead to more steps of accountability in the future.”

What about the fact that a lot of people are getting out of the Affordable Care Act? 

Topper said, “The other side is going to point to people walking away from it as some kind of a failure, but in reality, it’s what we knew was going to happen. I mean, the numbers have been so bloated since Obamacare. Look, none of this was unforeseen. The reason why many of us fought against Obamacare so vociferously was that we saw that this was going to be what happened to the market. Anytime the government intervenes into a private market and starts trying to manipulate benefits and who’s going to be on, these are the things that will happen. It’s over subscribed. There are going to be people leaving. This is what we saw years ago, and that’s why we fought against it. This is the old saying, the chickens are coming home to roost in that particular market.”

Jansen said, “There’s a political story, and it’s admittedly political of the Pennsylvania State Police and their involvement with the security updates of the governor’s mansion, the public and then his private home, and whether or not money was taken appropriately, or was going to be, I guess they underwrote it, and now they’re getting paid back for it. But it’s where that money is coming from and questions about, wait a minute, this is for public use, public security. Why are we using it for the governor’s private residence? Of course then there’s the whole dust up with his neighbors, which we don’t need to necessarily get into, but your take on that whole political issue and real issue in terms of using taxpayer money.”

Topper said, “I don’t think it’s political when public dollars are being used. I was absolutely critical of the amount of information or lack of that was coming out following the arson of the governor’s residence, which is, of course, public property, but also, we had seen millions of dollars being spent in terms of upgrading security, and yet, essentially there was very little security that was there that night and and the equipment was out of date and just things that we saw that obviously now they’re being rectified. But where is this money going? How’s it being spent? Look, I understand questions about security. There are certain things that should not be public. Certainly, when it comes to how the governor’s family is protected, we don’t want those things out there in a public setting. But when it comes to how the resources are being spent, that’s always a legitimate question, because at the end of the day, those are taxpayer dollars. So I have no problem with looking into that and finding out how the money was used, what it was used on, and even if some of those things have to be private in terms of briefings, elected leaders should still know about them.” 

Jansen added, “We had some interesting polling that came out, Quinnipiac poll, and I want to just make a broad generalized statement about as we head to the midterms, there is favorability that Josh Shapiro is seeing, although some numbers have come down. Do you think this is more a comparison of who or the other people people are looking at in the Democratic Party that may seem a little out of whack, compared to Josh Shapiro? When they say he’s gotten stuff done, and he should be the rising star of the Democrat party, I keep asking, well, please, can you give me the itemized list of exactly what he’s gotten done? The Republican Party should be very concerned about the turnout at the midterm, and Pennsylvanians should be concerned about where we’re going to go depending upon where majorities end up after November.”

Topper said, “All of his true legislative accomplishments that have helped move Pennsylvania forward have only been forced upon him by Republicans in the General Assembly. So we have to do a better job of getting out there and talking about it, and, quite frankly, taking credit, and not credit in the sense that, oh, look at what I’ve done, or look at what we’ve done, credit in the sense that look at the kind of policy, imagine what would happen if the Republicans actually had control fully of the legislature and the governor’s mansion, and look at the things we could stop as well. Because there’s a lot of stuff that’s happened legislatively that has not been good, and in terms of him fixing I-95 or some of the other things, that was the private sector coming in and helping to make it happen. But, I will say this about the governor. He does a tremendous job of branding, and he does what I’ve encouraged many of our members to do, go out and talk to people about what you have done to make you successful. Essentially go out and take credit for some of the stuff. That’s what he’s doing. We have a joke with the governor. I mean, he’s taking credit for the color of the sky, like, if it’s out there, he’s going to be talking about it and he does it very well. When it comes to actually governing, that’s a different story. But when it comes to being on brand, he’s there.”