Pennsylvania\u2019s 2026-27 state budget, which clocks in at a little north of $50.8 billion, has received praise from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who have hailed it as a product of compromise. And while the budget is balanced on paper, that\u2019s due in part to some wonky, budgetary maneuvers employed in this year\u2019s deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lawmakers were also able to reclaim more than $4.5 billion in lapsed funding from prior-year budgets, and avoid using money from the state\u2019s Rainy Day Fund, despite worries that the state would have to dip into its financial reserves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Below, City & State highlights three financial facts from the 2026-27 state budget adopted by lawmakers this month.<\/p>\n
The budget includes two \u201ccycle rolls\u201d<\/p>\n
With the commonwealth facing a structural budget deficit, lawmakers got creative in this year\u2019s cycle to make sure that the state\u2019s budget is balanced \u2013\u00a0 at least on paper. The $50.8 billion budget includes two so-called cycle rolls, or delayed monthly payments of $1.32 billion that will defer spending into the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cycle rolls apply to two Department of Human Services payments \u2013 one in fiscal year 2025-26 and one in fiscal year 2026-27 \u2013 that provide the state with $2.64 billion in temporary, one-time savings, according to an analysis<\/a> by the state\u2019s Independent Fiscal Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Rainy Day Fund is expected to accrue $350M in interest<\/p>\n Despite the fact that Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s executive budget proposal<\/a> called for using $4.5 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund<\/a> to the budget, the budget deal reached by Shapiro and lawmakers ultimately doesn\u2019t touch the fund, also known as the Budget Stabilization Reserve Fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n The IFO estimates that the two cycle rolls included in the budget package will ultimately allow the fund to accrue roughly $350 million in interest.\u00a0<\/p>\n The structural deficit is reduced by $520 million<\/p>\n Back in May, the IFO estimated that the state would have a structural deficit of $5.56 billion based on Shapiro\u2019s executive budget proposal. With a budget now in place, the office found that appropriations in the adopted budget will reduce the $5.56 billion deficit by $0.52 billion, bringing the state\u2019s structural deficit to just over $5 billion for the 2026-27 fiscal year.\u00a0<\/p>\n That reduction, per the IFO, can be credited to lower spending costs in executive departments, including a $235 million reduction for the Department of Human Services and a $109 million reduction in funding for the Department of Corrections related to the closure of state prisons.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania\u2019s 2026-27 state budget, which clocks in at a little north of $50.8 billion, has received praise from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[222,8434,8433,33,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-246071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-budget","tag-capitol-beat","tag-general-assembly","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246071","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=246071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}