HARRISBURG, Pa. (WPVI) — A lot of people and agencies — from school districts to food banks — are waiting with bated breath for the Pennsylvania state budget to pass. Lawmakers have been at an impasse for months.
Sources in Harrisburg tell Action News a lot of progress was made Tuesday night, and there is a deal in place.
Both chambers held caucus to discuss the proposed $50 billion spending plan. Two major pieces of the budget were voted out of the Pennsylvania State Senate Appropriations Committee around 9 p.m.
The Senate voted to reconvene on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. The Pennsylvania House is also scheduled to be in session on Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. to begin an all-day effort in voting on the budget bills.
Senator Sharif Street, who represents North Philadelphia, spoke with Action News, saying, “This proposed budget increases funding in public education and violence prevention programs. I am cautiously optimistic we will get this budget done.”
That budget is now four months overdue, threatening resources among counties, social services, and school districts.
In Bucks County, the Morrisville School District announced last week it would have to temporarily shut down if it didn’t receive state funding by mid-January.
And in Philadelphia, the Share Food Program has missed out on about $3.5 million it normally would’ve received from the state while lawmakers have tried to work out a budget deal. It’s money executive director George Matysik says he could really use as the nonprofit is seeing a massively increased need during the government shutdown.
“So over the course of the last year or so, the Share Food Program has seen a total cut of about $8.5 million to our organization, at a time when we’ve been seeing an increased need, but no need like what we’ve seen over the course of the last few weeks, where we have had a 12 fold increase in new registrants over the last two weeks,” Matysik said.
He says Governor Josh Shapiro recently released funding for food banks across the state, allocating about $750,000 for the Share Food Program.
“It certainly doesn’t pick up the amount of need that we’re seeing at the federal level, but it was a huge help for us,” Matysik said.
He’s hoping that lawmakers will get a budget passed on Wednesday.
“There is some relief in this moment, but I will tell you for organizations like ours and for the folks we serve, we have been going through collective whiplash over the course of the last few weeks while all of these programs have been started and stopped multiple times,” said Matysik. “So for many families that we serve that are on very tight budgets, this means a lot for them.”
Likely absent from that budget will be any funding for SEPTA. That was a point of contention among lawmakers over the summer, but eventually, Democratic lawmakers who were pushing for it accepted that it was not going to happen this year. Instead, Governor Shapiro’s administration approved the use of capital assistance funds to cover SEPTA’s operating expenses for the next two years.
A SEPTA spokesperson tells Action News the agency hasn’t received word that anything has changed on the funding front, with news of a potential deal on the table.
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