{"id":110652,"date":"2026-02-11T02:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/110652\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T02:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:03:08","slug":"pennsylvania-lawmakers-sit-on-cash-as-state-scrounges-for-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/110652\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania lawmakers sit on cash as state scrounges for money"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) \u2014 Hours before Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s budget address,<\/a> in a small corner of the Capitol in front of a very small audience, lawmakers held a yearly event<\/a>. The Legislative Audit Advisory Commission\u2019s meeting took just 11 minutes. Members voted on an audit report, but took no questions or comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same evasiveness every year,\u201d said Eric Epstein, from the government watchdog Rock the Capital. \u201cThere is absolutely no opportunity for the public to speak. There\u2019s no recommendations from the auditor.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pennsylvania is scraping together money this year as it faces a $4 billion to $5 billion structural deficit, meaning it\u2019s spending more than it\u2019s taking in. At the same time, lawmakers are also sitting on a pile of cash.<\/p>\n

The audit released online showed the legislature has $307 million from taxpayers in reserve.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Gebhard (R-Berks\/Lancaster\/Lebanon) sits on the commission. The dollars and cents are accounted for, but does it make sense to keep all of it?<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it\u2019s a significant amount of money, and the amount of money that we should have in these accounts should only equal what we need,\u201d Gebhard said. \u201cAnd that certainly is determined by people that are above my pay grade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R) and others have said for years that reserves should be reduced. But they keep increasing. Last year, it was $299 million.<\/p>\n

Pittman called the new number \u201cmuch higher than it needs to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what about inflated? The surplus was created to protect the financial independence of the General Assembly should there be a budget fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to understand the reason for these accounts no longer exists,\u201d Epstein said. \u201cThere used to be a reason. That was if there was a budget stalemate, the legislature didn\u2019t want to be starved out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the case,\u201d he added. \u201cEverybody got paid. Everybody got paid this year, so the reason for its existence is nonexistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrities, CEOs among top Josh Shapiro, Stacy Garrity donors <\/a><\/p>\n

A structural deficit very much exists, putting every pot of money very much in play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every penny is being accounted for and scrutinized,\u201d Gebhard said. \u201cAnd so do I think these numbers will come down? I think they\u2019ll very much be part of that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) \u2014 Hours before Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s budget address, in a small corner of the Capitol…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[52947,52948,52946,28597,28,30,29,28540],"class_list":{"0":"post-110652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-advisory-commission","9":"tag-amount-of-money","10":"tag-chris-gebhard","11":"tag-eric-epstein","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","14":"tag-pennsylvania-news","15":"tag-structural-deficit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}