Shapiro Signs $50.8 Billion Pennsylvania Budget as Lawmakers Back Bipartisan Compromise 211-41
Updated
Updated · WHYY · Jul 14
Shapiro Signs $50.8 Billion Pennsylvania Budget as Lawmakers Back Bipartisan Compromise 211-41
3 articles · Updated · WHYY · Jul 14
Summary
$50.8 billion in state spending became law Sunday after Pennsylvania lawmakers approved the budget less than two weeks past deadline, with 211 of 252 legislators voting yes.
The compromise came in a divided legislature after Republicans rejected Shapiro’s larger $53.2 billion February proposal; the final plan stays about $2.4 billion lower and leaves the state’s $8 billion rainy-day fund intact.
More than $678 million in added education funding anchors the package, alongside $775 million for roads and bridges, a $125 million innovation fund, mental health support, child welfare aid and four new state police cadet classes.
Unresolved priorities still include a minimum-wage increase, long-term mass-transit funding, affordable housing, recreational marijuana legalization and skills-game regulation.
The fifth straight late budget still avoided last year’s prolonged disruption, when a four-month impasse threatened payments to schools, counties, nonprofits and other state-funded groups.