After 135 days, the state budget impasse is over.<\/p>\n
The state House of Representatives voted 156-47 Wednesday morning and the state Senate voted 40-9 Wednesday afternoon to pass the latest version of a state 2025-26 budget, on the 135th day of the budget impasse in Harrisburg.<\/p>\n
Gov. Josh Shapiro has announced he will sign that budget at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Unlike the last budget vote in the House, many of the Republicans voted for the bill, including Minority Appropriations Chairman Jim Struzzi, R-Indiana; fellow Indiana County Rep. Brian Smith, R-Punxsutawney, and Reps. Mike Armanini of Kersey, Jill Cooper of Murrysville, Abby Major of Leechburg, and Jim Rigby of Ferndale.<\/p>\n
Rep. Frank Burns, D-East Taylor Township, the area’s only Democratic lawmaker, also was a yes vote, but Republican Reps. Josh Bashline of Clarion Township and Leslie Rossi of Unity Township were no votes.<\/p>\n
In the Senate, Majority Appropriations Chairman Scott Martin, R-Lancaster County, chose not to cast a vote, while Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson County, voted no, and yes votes included President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Hempfield Township; Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana; Minority Leader Jay Costa Jr., D-PIttsburgh, and Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Cambria County.<\/p>\n
According to Spotlight PA, it is a $50.1 billion spending plan, higher than previous state Senate plans, but also makes additional investments in public schools, creates a new tax credit for families, and ends the state\u2019s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.<\/p>\n
Also, it would reduce public school districts\u2019 reimbursements to cyber charter schools, something sought by area educators including Indiana Area Superintendent Robert J. Heinrich Jr., send more than $500 million to the poorest schools to help close an \u201cadequacy gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
One House member with a no vote from elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania issued his thoughts early Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI voted no on the main budget bill because it spends too much,” said Rep. Brad Roae, R-Meadville. “The governor\u2019s budget proposal would have resulted in a tax increase in 2027. The lower spending level in the bill passed today will still cause a tax increase, but not until 2028. Pennsylvania is overspending, not under taxing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another with a yes vote included this lawmaker from the Lehigh Valley …<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the turmoil in Washington, D.C. and the resolve of the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans under justifiable scrutiny, voters across Pennsylvania issued a strong statement last week at the ballot box,” said Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Allentown. “I hope my colleagues in Harrisburg heard it as a repudiation of the divisive and destructive politics that has broken Washington and threatens the American economy and jobs of hard-working Pennsylvanians.”<\/p>\n
This story will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 135 days, the state budget impasse is over. The state House of Representatives voted 156-47 Wednesday morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5179,902,2027,744,33,2028,28,30,29,50,382,8553,66,8551,4717],"class_list":["post-32286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-american-politicians","tag-elections","tag-federal-government-of-the-united-states","tag-government","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-legislative-branch-of-the-united-states-government","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-politics-of-the-united-states","tag-republican-party-united-states","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-house-of-representatives","tag-united-states-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32286","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=32286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}