HARRISBURG — More than four months into the 2024 fiscal year and under increasing pressure, state lawmakers on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that provides level funding to the University of Pittsburgh and two other state-related universities.
Gov. Josh Shapiro indicated he would sign the measure, putting an end to months of partisan bickering in the Capitol over transparency and accountability issues.
The bill is markedly different from one that passed the House on Oct. 31. That legislation contained both a tuition freeze for next school year and a 7.1% funding increase for Pitt and other state-related schools – items that were stripped out of the version that got final approval in both chambers on Wednesday.
The new bill had the weight of Mr. Shapiro’s endorsement behind it. Before his chamber voted 45-5 to pass the measure, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, said Mr. Shapiro had committed in writing to signing both the university-funding bill and a separate one with transparency measures that had already passed both chambers.
Later in the day, the House voted 149-54 to approve the changes made by the Senate, sending the bill to Mr. Shapiro.
A spokesperson for Mr. Shapiro, Manuel Bonder, said the governor knows “the importance of transparency and accountability around tax dollars.” He confirmed the governor would “promptly sign” both bills.
The bill includes appropriations for “general support” to Pitt of $151,507,000; Penn State, $242,096,000; Temple, $158,206,000; and Lincoln, $18,401,000. Except for Lincoln — which got an increase — those amounts are the same as the previous year.
Pressure had been growing on lawmakers to act on the funding. A group of Lincoln students walked more than 60 miles to the Capitol to draw attention to the need for the money and university leaders wrote a joint letter to the General Assembly urging an end to the bickering.
A key to the Wednesday passage of the state-related funding bill was the earlier approval by lawmakers of the separate bill that places new reporting requirements on the universities, including the release of information about salaries, revenue, and expenditures.
Democrats hold a 102-101 majority in the House. But the bill providing funds to the state-related schools required a two-thirds majority, rather than a simple majority, for passage.
All Democrats voted in favor of the bill, along with 47 Republicans. Those Republicans included Majority Leader Bryan Cutler of Lancaster County and Rep. Martina White of Philadelphia, the caucus secretary.
Ms. White told reporters “Republicans have been holding the line” on the transparency issue. Another prominent Republican, Rep. Jesse Topper of Bedford County, said, “Because of what we have done in this process, the universities are now engaged at a level we have not seen.”
In the Senate, Mr. Pittman called the new funding bill a “consensus product.”
Ford Turner: fturner@post-gazette.com
First Published: November 15, 2023, 6:48 p.m.
Updated: November 16, 2023, 10:47 a.m.
