Pennsylvania lawmakers plan to vote on nearly $48B budget, almost 2 weeks late

Pennsylvania lawmakers planned to begin grinding through a series of votes Thursday to finalize a budget deal that took nearly two weeks into the new fiscal year to reach, slowed by disagreements during closed-door negotiations over Democrats’ push for more public schools aid.

The $47.7 billion plan for the fiscal year that started July 1 represents a 6% increase over last year’s approved spending, with most of the new money going toward public schools, services for adults with intellectual disabilities, and hospital and nursing home care for the poor.

Hundreds of pages of budget-related legislation were just starting to become public Thursday, with briefings of rank-and-file lawmakers and votes expected to last much of the day in the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House.

The legislation could reach Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk by late Thursday, within hours of being unveiled.

The plan does not increase sales or income tax rates, the state’s two major revenue sources, although the package carries tax cuts for businesses and the lower-income workers.

It will require some of the state’s $14 billion in surplus cash to balance, reserves that accumulated the last three years thanks to federal COVID-19 aid and inflation-juiced tax collections. Shapiro initially sought a 7% increase to $48.3 billion.

For public schools, the legislation will deliver about $850 million more for instruction and special education, about a 9% increase, plus other sums for food, busing, counselors and security.

A substantial portion of it is designed to represent the first step in a multiyear process to respond to a court decision that found the state’s system of school funding violates the constitutional rights of students in poorer districts.

For weeks, a behind-the-scenes struggle played out between Republicans and Democrats over how to distribute the money.

In any case, the total amount falls well short of the amount — a $6.2 billion increase phased in over five years — sought for underfunded districts by the school districts that sued and won in court. It’s also smaller than the $870 million Democrats had pursued as the first step of a seven-year, $5.1 billion increase.