HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Senate returns to session Wednesday and Thursday to act on budget legislation, however, a spokesperson for the Republican majority caucus tempered the idea that a deal may be imminent.
“Discussions with the House and governor continue to advance. While there is still a good deal of work needed to reach a full budget agreement, we believe it is useful to return to session this week to vote to move bills into position,” Kate Eckhart Flessner, communications director for Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, said.
The Senate will convene for voting sessions at 4 p.m. Wednesday and 9:30 a.m. Thursday. The upper chamber adjourned on June 30, the annual budget deadline, without an agreement in place.
The House, led by its Democratic majority, approved a $50.6 billion budget proposal on Monday that serves to advance the sluggish budget process rather than act as a firm proposal. It cleared the lower chamber on a 105-97 vote with just three Republicans joining the entire Democratic caucus in support.
All parties involved in negotiating the budget — respective legislative caucus leaders and the governor — acknowledged that agreement hasn’t been reached and that more work is necessary to finalize spending and revenue for 2025-26.
“We know this is not the final negotiated product, this is not agreed to, but we are pleased that talks are continuing, moving in a direction that while it may seem slow and, in fact, is slow and frustrating for many of us, we do believe that there is positive momentum,” House Republican Minority Leader Jesse Topper said Monday after voting against the House bill.
Leaders of the Senate Democratic minority put the onus on their Republican colleagues to complete the process.
“The budget process has dragged on long enough and issues that have strong bipartisan support are being held hostage because of it. For example, Senate Democrats have 23 votes to fund roads and bridges and mass transit today. We know Senate Republicans also support infrastructure funding. Yet, nothing happens,” Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa and Senate Democratic Appropriations Chair Vincent Hughes said Monday in a joint statement. “It’s time for Senate Republicans to allow a vote on the governor’s transportation/mass transit proposal, which has passed the House four times over the past two years. We are confident it will pass overwhelmingly.”
It’s not clear what bills the Senate will take up this week.
The House had advanced a slew of budget-related bills prior to Monday’s action including a minimum wage increase, charter school reforms estimated to save public schools $616 million and a package of $292 million for mass transit and nearly $42 million for roads and bridges.
Senate Republicans are opposed to additional spending without revenue growth. They seek reforms to limit the growth in spending on Medicaid and while open to the charter reform plan, maintain that a school voucher system remains a priority as is a firm exit from Pennsylvania’s still-in-dispute entry into a regional cap-and-trade program on energy emissions.
Pittman has dismissed the potential to open a legal marijuana market this budget cycle though new proposals were introduced last week and this week, and disagreement within the caucus stymied progress on the taxation and regulation of skill games.
He also expressed opposition to a House measure to enact combined reporting for corporate taxes estimated to generate $320 million in fiscal 2027. Those are the main new revenue drivers proposed by Shapiro and House Democrats.
The House budget bill trimmed just shy of $1 billion in expenses from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal announced in February, with half reflected in proposed cuts in Medicaid spending.
It’s still approximately $4 billion short in revenues from being balanced. Shapiro had proposed exhausting Pennsylvania’s unspent budgetary reserve funds plus an additional transfer from the Rainy Day Fund to eliminate the deficit.
Republicans in the House and Senate have sought steeper cuts to draw expenses and revenues closer while also advocating for regulatory changes within the energy sector to spur economic development. They warn that even if flat-funded, the commonwealth faces a structural deficit.
“I’m not naive enough to think that we’re going to wipe away a $3 billion budgetary structural deficit in one fiscal year, but we have to make progress,” Pittman told Capitol reporters in mid-June.
“If we kick the can down the road and ignore this, we’re a year or two away from fiscal calamity. The lower that spend number, the more we bring things into balance, the better off we’re all going to be. Until we get our arms around, number one, Medicaid, I’m not sure how we make those next steps,” Pittman said.