\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSenate lawmakers returned to Harrisburg Friday night for committee meetings, advancing several pieces of legislation but not yet the state budget bill, as both chambers plan to remain in session through the weekend. Senate Appropriations Majority Chairman Scott Martin led a rare Friday session for the Senate Appropriations Committee, where lawmakers advanced the capital budget for construction projects, funding for universities, and other legislation that could be part of the final budget deal.School funding and skill gamesDemocratic Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes said a proposed $500 million investment in schools, backed by Gov. Josh Shapiro and Democrats, appears likely to be included in the final budget. “If the adequacy number was not agreed to, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now, so continuing at the same rate as I think the adequacy number will be consistent with what the governor proposed for schools,” Hughes said. Hughes did not confirm whether legalizing, taxing, and regulating skill game machines would be part of the budget. Lawmakers have until this fall to act after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the machines are essentially illegal slot machines. Final deal could come soonSenator Martin was unavailable for an interview after the meeting, but his spokesman said, “We’re working hard” as lawmakers near a final budget deal that could potentially see its first votes on Saturday.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tHARRISBURG, Pa. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Senate lawmakers returned to Harrisburg Friday night for committee meetings, advancing several pieces of legislation but not yet the state budget bill, as both chambers plan to remain in session through the weekend. <\/p>\n
Senate Appropriations Majority Chairman Scott Martin led a rare Friday session for the Senate Appropriations Committee, where lawmakers advanced the capital budget for construction projects, funding for universities, and other legislation that could be part of the final budget deal.<\/p>\n
School funding and skill games<\/p>\n
Democratic Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes said a proposed $500 million investment in schools, backed by Gov. Josh Shapiro and Democrats, appears likely to be included in the final budget. <\/p>\n
“If the adequacy number was not agreed to, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now, so continuing at the same rate as I think the adequacy number will be consistent with what the governor proposed for schools,” Hughes said. <\/p>\n
Hughes did not confirm whether legalizing, taxing, and regulating skill game machines would be part of the budget. Lawmakers have until this fall to act after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the machines are essentially illegal slot machines. <\/p>\n
Final deal could come soon<\/p>\n
Senator Martin was unavailable for an interview after the meeting, but his spokesman said, “We’re working hard” as lawmakers near a final budget deal that could potentially see its first votes on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senate lawmakers returned to Harrisburg Friday night for committee meetings, advancing several pieces of legislation but not yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[103459,70721,103455,2258,103456,442,28,30,29,103460,103461,100499,103457,103458,1978,103462],"class_list":["post-240737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-committee-meetings","tag-construction-projects","tag-democratic-appropriations-chairman-vincent-hughes","tag-democrats","tag-friday-session","tag-gov-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-regulating-skill-game-machines","tag-return-to-harrisburg","tag-senate-appropriations-committee","tag-senate-appropriations-majority-chairman-scott-martin","tag-senate-lawmakers","tag-state-budget","tag-university-funding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240737","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=240737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}