Pennsylvania passed its state budget on Wednesday, ending a four and a half month impasse when Republicans and Democrats agreed to a $50.1 billion spending plan.<\/p>\n
In a one on one interview, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke on his policy victories in the budget. Education funding was increased by around $800 million in the new budget.<\/p>\n
Shapiro noting that Erie School District alone has around $50 million more in their annual budget since he entered office in January, 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for too long, school districts that needed the most help were getting the least help\u2026 This is now the third year in a row where we\u2019ve invested a record amount of funding in our schools,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cAnd, you know, it\u2019s not just about the numbers on a spreadsheet. It\u2019s going to very specific things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor referenced investments in vocational technical schooling, mental health services and counselors, free and reduced price lunches, teacher recruitment, and structured literacy as some of the targeted spending in education.<\/p>\n
Economic development work and continued permitting reform were priorities for both Democrats and Republicans. Shapiro commenting that the Erie City\u2019s CRIZ continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think particularly with the two new leaders coming in, the new county executive, new mayor, that\u2019s also going to be really helpful,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cWorking together with the private sector and the other leaders, Democrat and Republican alike in the community, I think that\u2019s going to be really important in that that continues.<\/p>\n
Shapiro also highlighted security improvements, economic development work with permitting reform, and affordability policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only have we cut taxes for seniors and tripled our child care tax credit, but [we got] a new Pennsylvania Working Families tax credit,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201c940,000 Pennsylvanians who are working\u2013 this isn\u2019t a freebie, but who are working\u2013 are going to be able to deduct up to $800 off their taxes or get a credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the bill finished, money can start going out to organizations like schools and counties who have been strained by frozen state funds.<\/p>\n
Breakthrough in negotiations came in late October, when more majority and minority leaders joined talks\u2013 and everyone got in the same room to hash out details.<\/p>\n
When asked why those larger leadership talks didn\u2019t happen sooner, Shapiro maintained that negotiations were on going during the entire 135 day impasse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were talks that occurred all summer. I spent my entire summer here in the Capitol, running back and forth between the Republican leader in the Senate, Joe Pittman, who is their chief negotiator, and Democratic leader in the House Matt Bradford, who was their chief negotiator. And we worked at it. So for anyone to suggest that we didn\u2019t, they\u2019re just wrong,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, do I wish lawmakers didn\u2019t leave Harrisburg on June 30th without completing their work? Of course. I wish they stuck around, but I stayed at it,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cMy administration stayed at it. Those two leaders stayed at it. And we worked through it. And we found common ground in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro saying mass transit and skill games are two policies that didn\u2019t make the final cut that he wants to work on the future\u2026 but overall emphasizing he\u2019s proud of the final product.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy glass is more than half full here. I think we proved again that Pennsylvanians\u2013 that the Pennsylvania way is to bring people together to get stuff done. And I\u2019m proud of all that we accomplished together,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cLook, I\u2019m proud of the fact that Republican lawmakers could go back to their districts enthusiastic about this budget, as could Democratic lawmakers. That shows that my hard work to bring people together paid off.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we found that common ground, which is so elusive in our politics today. But it\u2019s the Pennsylvania way, and I think we\u2019re finding that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania passed its state budget on Wednesday, ending a four and a half month impasse when Republicans and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2288,37,28,5929,30,29],"class_list":["post-33591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bureau","tag-harrisburg","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-capitol","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33591","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=33591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}