HARRISBURG — State lawmakers return to the Capitol this month to resume voting sessions, albeit briefly, as Pennsylvania’s budget stalemate wears into the third month of the fiscal year.
State senators have three consecutive session days beginning Monday, all of which were previously scheduled. They’re not scheduled to return again until late October and have just 15 session days remaining on the calendar before the year’s end.
Representatives in the state House don’t return until a three-day stretch beginning Sept. 29. Like the Senate, the House has just 15 session days scheduled plus six non-voting days.
Members of either chamber could be recalled by the respective leaders to return to the Capitol and vote on legislation to settle the outstanding budget, one due annually by June 30.
Whether that might happen is anyone’s guess.
Negotiations reportedly progress, but there’s been little in the way of public signaling that a deal might soon be made.
The House and Senate, respectively, rejected either chamber’s prior offers — a $50.6 billion plan advanced by House Democrats and a flat-funded $47.6 billion plan advanced by Senate Republicans that mirrors the fiscal 2025 budget.
Neither plan aligns spending with projected revenues, requiring the use of budgetary reserves or a transfer from Pennsylvania’s Rainy Day Fund.
Spotlight PA reported that the office of Gov. Josh Shapiro offered a $49.9 billion proposal as a compromise though the impasse persists.
In an interview this week with The Dom Giordano Program in Philadelphia, Senate Republican Majority Leader Joe Pittman — a chief budget negotiator — said steps must be taken this year to prevent future fiscal problems, echoing warnings legislative Republicans have proclaimed regarding the potential spend-through of about $11 billion in state savings cementing a structural deficit.
“If we would enact last year’s budget, it would essentially fund the government for 10 months as we continue to negotiate and figure out more resolution to this. We agree there should not be consequences of a protracted budget impasse, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to roll over and just concede to everything that’s been put on the table. We have a structural deficit that we have to be very, very attentive to because if we don’t start making some moves now to tamp down our overall expenditures, we’re going to have a real problem in a couple years,” Pittman said.
The chambers also respectively rejected budget-adjacent plans to boost mass transit funding across the commonwealth. That left the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority to cut service and institute fare hikes in greater Philadelphia, which is now the subject of ongoing litigation. Other systems like Pittsburgh’s may be forced to do the same due to operating deficits.
Pittman blamed SEPTA for manufacturing “some of this crisis” as new consideration is given to a plan first offered by Senate Republicans for Pennsylvania to draw down funds from a $2.4 billion public trust intended for transit infrastructure projects.
“We have been very clear in saying that we believe that reliable transit is very important not only to the region but to the entire state. We just want to make sure that there’s an element of accountability, an element of public safety and an element of local support for this, too. The local municipalities, the fare riders, there all needs to be some self-help in this process,” Pittman said.
Shapiro has held firm that it is up to the respective legislative bodies to compromise on Pennsylvania’s budget.
“I said this before, it is time for the leaders in both chambers to understand this is the moment where they need to make tough choices, and if they make those tough choices, they know that there is a way forward to fund our schools, to fund supports for people with intellectual disabilities, to fund the hiring of more police, to fund all kinds of important things, including mass transit, and our road and bridge construction that is necessary,” Shapiro said last week. “They know what they need to do. It’s time they stop firing off press releases and playing political games, come back to Harrisburg and do their jobs.”
Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative Harrisburg think tank, released polling results this week that showed 36% of survey respondents believe Shapiro is responsible for finalizing the budget. Asked about spending increases proposed by the governor, the poll showed 64% were opposed while 65% also opposed using state savings to cover a budget deficit.