We understand why Republicans are ticked off at Gov. Josh Shapiro for an awkward and uncharacteristic slip-up during negotiations on the state’s $46-billion budget. His pledge to line-item veto $100 million for a scholarship program for students to attend private schools, after agreeing to support it, left Republicans fuming. Making promises you can’t keep is no way to win friends in Harrisburg.
But it’s time for Senate Republicans to stop sulking and move a budget that both the Republican-controlled Senate and Democrat-controlled House have passed. Before the spending bill can reach the governor’s desk, it must get a signature from the Senate, while it is in session, meaning Senate Republicans will have to reconvene in Harrisburg.
Without that signature, the state does not have an enacted budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which started July 1. That means the state cannot cut checks for vital services, including schools, county human services, drug and alcohol treatment, and kids in foster care.
Attempts by Senate Republicans to delay the budget by not completing a procedural step will gain them nothing, and it could hurt some of the state’s most vulnerable residents. Special education money has already been held up.
Nor is there any chance Mr. Shapiro will change his mind again and not veto the scholarship fund money — a program he, unlike most Democrats, personally supports. Another flip-flop would just make him look weaker. Plus, his veto pledge was necessary to get the budget through the House.
Politically, the governor has already taken his lumps. His Superman’s cape has been torn. At this point, holding up the budget won’t make him look worse; it will only make Republicans look bad.
Negotiations on the so-called code bills, determining how the money is spent, could go on for months, especially for new state-funded programs such as indigent defense. But the state needs an enacted general appropriations bill now to cut the checks for programs the people of Pennsylvania depend on.
Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, a staunch supporter of the scholarship program, is the only person who can call the Senate back into session. She had said she has no plans to do so before Sept. 18, its next scheduled day.
On Sunday, however, she suggested, in an interview with abc27 news, that the Senate could reconvene in August. That’s an encouraging sign.
Make that very early August, Madame President. For the good of the people of Pennsylvania, it’s time to stop sulking and sign the budget.
First Published: July 24, 2023, 5:06 p.m.
Updated: July 25, 2023, 9:43 a.m.