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HARRISBURG \u2014 Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a> signed a $50.8 billion state budget<\/a> on Sunday following the rushed passage of the overall deal by the General Assembly that lawmakers said helps address the state\u2019s affordability crisis but delays action on some of the most significant issues before the legislature.<\/p>\n The agreement, which was due at the beginning of the month<\/a>, marks an improvement from last year\u2019s nearly five-month budget impasse in the split legislature that required school districts, counties, and social service providers to take out expensive loans or close altogether<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe managed, as the [vote count] indicates, to find compromise without compromising our core values,\u201d Shapiro said during a news conference Sunday evening, before signing his fourth budget as Pennsylvania\u2019s governor.<\/p>\n The deal was hashed out over weeks in closed-door meetings among top leaders and includes new transparency requirements for data centers, publicly funded housing projects, and public transit agencies. Lawmakers also agreed to a long-sought cost-of-living adjustment totaling approximately $168 million per year for some Pennsylvania retired teachers, police officers, and firefighters \u2014 some of whom have not seen an increase to their monthly pension payments in more than 20 years. <\/p>\n More education funding, data center requirements <\/p>\n Pennsylvania will have invested nearly $2 billion in new school funding through its adequacy and tax equity formulas since 2024. That\u2019s when lawmakers first employed the new calculations to close a $4 billion \u201cadequacy gap\u201d after a landmark court ruling that found the state was illegally underfunding students in low-income districts<\/a>. This year\u2019s installment of adequacy funding topped $650 million, as part of an effort to prevent districts from having to raise property taxes on already low-income residents. The additional investment sends $157 million more this year to the School District of Philadelphia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Legislative leaders failed to agree in the final budget on other issues that have seen broad support in both chambers, such as repealing a sales tax exemption for data center projects, allowing local moratoriums on data center projects, or banning cell phones in K-12 schools<\/a>. They may revisit the issues during the fall legislative session.<\/p>\n Instead, they approved a new reporting requirement that will force data centers to submit annual reports detailing their water and energy usage. The companies will face a $10,000-a-day fine for failing to submit their reports.<\/p>\n The General Assembly also voted to close a sales-tax loophole that allowed online sellers to avoid paying Philadelphia\u2019s local 2% sales tax<\/a> on items sold in the city. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a> had requested that the loophole be closed as part of her own budget pitch in a move estimated to bring an additional $1.5 million to the city. <\/p>\n No decision on skill games<\/p>\n But the budget does not address some of the most pressing issues before the General Assembly, including whether to tax and regulate skill games or allow the more than 70,000 gambling machines<\/a> in Pennsylvania bars, corner stores and fraternal organizations to become illegal come October. The state has until then to decide how to approach the machines after the state\u2019s Supreme Court last month determined that skill games, which have for years operated in a legal gray area, are slot machines and should be regulated as such. They also punted on finding a long-term funding solution to fund mass transit<\/a> until next year, when a two-year fail-safe runs out.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: How \u2018skill games\u2019 exploded across Pennsylvania \u2014 and sparked a multimillion-dollar political fight<\/a><\/p>\n Shapiro, a first-term Democrat facing reelection this year, proposed a $53.3 budget in February<\/a> that for a fourth time emphasized top Democratic initiatives such as raising the state minimum wage to $15 per hour or legalizing recreational marijuana. He also proposed other initiatives, such as a $1 billion critical infrastructure fund to help the state drive out public dollars to build more housing and energy generation, which did not see funding in the final budget deal.<\/p>\n