Today\u2014representatives and senators voted on a state budget in Harrisburg\u2026 completing a task that was legally due on June 30th.<\/p>\n
The $50.1 billion deal increases spending on education, makes slight tweaks to welfare programs, and codifies permitting reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is nothing in this budget and there\u2019s a million things that are not in this budget, that weren\u2019t discussed at length,\u201d said Rep. Matthew Bradford, a Montgomery County Democrat and House Majority Leader. \u201cI will tell you, finding that right formula of things to get that done is difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats control the state house, and Republicans control the senate. Leaders from both chambers were stalled in negotiations for months.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stayed at the table. We continued to dialog,\u201d said Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. \u201cSometimes that dialog was me running back and forth between leader Pittman and leader Bradford. Sometimes it was leader Pittman and leader Bradford having conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro put air quotes around \u201cconversations\u201d while answering the question from a reporter.<\/p>\n
The gridlock kept state funding frozen for schools, counties, and other organizations. Many took out loans, laid off staff, or cut programs\u2013 strained by the lack of state money.<\/p>\n
A breakthrough in talks happened just a few weeks ago; when more leaders were pulled into talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn divided government, there has to be a compromise,\u201d said Rep. Jesse Topper, a Bedford County Republican and House Minority Leader. \u201cIn our [Republican\u2019s] world, if you were going to increase spending, you had to have policy initiatives that could eventually support that spending.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest compromise of the deal? Republicans successfully removed Pennsylvania from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The multi-state program taxes energy companies for carbon emissions, which Republicans argue stifles business expansion in the energy sector.<\/p>\n
Environmentalists are not pleased at the state\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n
Over half of Pennsylvania\u2019s energy comes from natural gas\u2013 and the state is the number two exporter of electricity in the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve enacted historic reforms that I believe are going to unleash the promise of Pennsylvania,\u201d said Sen. Joe Pittman, the Senate Republican Leader.<\/p>\n
Some fiscally conservative Republicans are frustrated that the final spend number is so high\u2013 around $5 billion more than what the state could generate in revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean to the finances a year, two years, three years from now?\u201d said Rep. Brad Roae, a Crawford County Republican who voted no on today\u2019s budget bill. \u201cWhat does that mean about potential tax increases?\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats are touting a new earned income tax credit as a victory, as well as reforms to cyber charter school rules and funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a parent wants to send their child to a cyber school, that\u2019s fine. That\u2019s their prerogative. But we shouldn\u2019t be over funding them at the expense of Pennsylvania\u2019s public schools,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n
Money to schools, counties, and other groups should be flowing in the next day or so. We will continue coverage on the details of this budget, and how it impacts our local area in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2014representatives and senators voted on a state budget in Harrisburg\u2026 completing a task that was legally due on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2288,744,37,28,5929,30,29,7724],"class_list":["post-32856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bureau","tag-government","tag-harrisburg","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-capitol","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-regional-greenhouse-gas-initiative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32856","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=32856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}