HARRISBURG — A $47.6 billion state spending bill for 2024-25 that included a $1.1 billion increase for K-12 education received final approval from state lawmakers and was signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro on Thursday night.
The budget — delivered 11 days after it was due — was slightly less than the $48.3 billion plan proposed in February by Mr. Shapiro, but with state spending that would increase about 6% from last year. The figure emerged from lengthy closed-door negotiations whose key players were Democrats who control the House, Republicans who control the Senate, and the Democratic Shapiro administration.
“This is a product of hard work and compromise — and it delivers for Pennsylvania,” Mr. Shapiro said.
Mr. Shapiro is the only governor in the country working with a divided Legislature. A spokesperson for Mr. Shapiro, Manuel Bonder, said in a statement earlier in the day that the budget delivers on “bipartisan priorities to invest in our students, create safer communities, grow our economy, cut taxes and costs, responsibly spend taxpayer dollars, and build a better future with more freedom and opportunity for all Pennsylvanians.”
The top Republican in negotiations, Senate majority leader Joe Pittman of Indiana County, said it was the best product that could happen “in this divided government” and Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, said it delivered many benefits for students, communities and working families.
The final vote in the House was 122-80, with all Democrats and 20 Republicans in favor. In the Senate, the vote was 44-5, with ‘no’ votes coming from Sens. Lindsey Williams, D-Allegheny; Katie Muth, D-Montgomery; Jarrett Coleman, R-Lehigh; Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin; and Scott Hutchinson, R-Venango.
Leaders on both sides pointed to the roughly $1.1 billion increase in K-12 education spending as the labor-intensive product of months of work, triggered by a landmark 2023 court decision that found the state’s current mode of funding basic education unconstitutional. Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, said children in many schools have “historically been neglected” and the work showed lawmakers “can rise to the occasion and do more.”
Not everyone was happy, though.
Ms. Muth said some aspects of the plan favored for-profit corporations and ignored many priorities of common people. Rep. Aaron Bernstine, R-Lawrence, called it “the worst budget that I have seen” in eight years as a lawmaker. He noted it gave a 12% funding increase to the governor’s office and an 8.3% increase to the General Assembly – revenue increase levels that Mr. Bernstine said few people in the state experienced this year.
A few of the many new or changed features in the 2024-25 budget included:
• In the wake of the court ruling, a commission determined there was a $5 billion-plus “adequacy gap” in funding Pennsylvania school districts. A big chunk of the $1.1 billion increase for K-12 education is intended to put a dent in that gap with more increases expected to follow in coming years.
• The University of Pittsburgh, Temple and Penn State universities are all flat-funded for 2024-2025. However, the plan includes creation of a Performance Based Funding Council charged with developing a new funding system for state-related universities.
• The state’s community colleges and the State System of Higher Education will receive 6% increases in funding.
• The package includes $80 million in new funding for public transit and $80 million for roads and bridges. The public transit figure was significantly less than the $283 million boost originally sought by Mr. Shapiro, but state Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny and the top Democrat in the Senate, said both parties hope to come up with more money for transit and transportation in the fall. Mr. Costa said Pittsburgh Regional Transit would receive an increase in funding of nearly $12 million.
• A new scholarship program called “Grow PA” will have $25 million in funding. It will give $5,000 grant awards to students who are Pennsylvania residents, enroll in a course of study that leads to an “in demand” profession, and agree to work in Pennsylvania for 12 months for every year in which they get a grant. A separate program will let PASSHE schools charge the in-state tuition rate for first-time, first-year students from outside of the state who commit to work in Pennsylvania after graduation.
• The annual household income limit for the existing and popular “Ready to Succeed” scholarship program will be increased from $126,000 to $175,000, and funding for the program will be increased by $36 million.
• A student teacher stipend program will see a doubling of funding, from $10 million to $20 million.
Last year, in Mr. Shapiro’s first year as governor, a bitter budget disagreement erupted in early July and some spending provisions were not complete until November. This year, Mr. Costa said, things went much better.
“Our process this year was much better than last year,” Mr. Costa said. Some of the main reasons, he said, were “consistent communication” between negotiators and good coordination.
The negotiators had the unusual luxury of a state surplus estimated at about $15 billion.
Rep. Seth Grove, R-York and the minority chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, attacked the way the plan dipped deep into the surplus and – without it – actually showed expenditures that far outpace revenue.
He said using the surplus was like “dipping into your 401k to pay for your vacation today.” The overall feel of the plan, he said, was “spending without regard to the future.”
Many long-discussed bills not associated with the budget were put to votes on Thursday, as well, as lawmakers looked to leave Harrisburg for a summer recess and not return until September.
Ford Turner: fturner@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 11, 2024, 5:56 p.m.
Updated: July 12, 2024, 5:45 p.m.
