Senate Republicans on Tuesday evening passed a temporary spending plan pitched as a lifeline for school districts and local governments amid the ongoing budget impasse threatening state payments.
Members also passed a separate transit agency funding bill countering House Democrats’ proposal, before SEPTA in Philadelphia approaches its looming 20% service cut deadline Aug. 14.
Both proposals — passed in party-line 27-22 votes — are dead-on-arrival in the House, Democrats said.
The budget bill would largely continue funding levels from last year, while lawmakers work to reach a final agreement on the rest of this year’s budget.
“Is what we’re doing today the total answer? Well, it is the answer for the moment,” Senate President Pro Temp. Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, said during floor debate on the bill.
Budget negotiations “will move along,” according to Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman. “We will continue to have our healthy debate.”
House Democratic leadership, in a joint statement Tuesday evening, said Senate Republicans “failed to do their job.”
“This budget does not fulfill our constitutional obligation to adequately and equitably fund our public schools, and it fails to support critical programs and services such as mass transit,” they said. “We have a multibillion-dollar surplus and the governor presented real opportunities to grow our revenues, which the Senate has ignored.”
A spokesman for Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has said repeatedly this year he would oppose a short-term budget, did not respond to a request for comment on the Senate GOP’s budget.
Pennsylvania’s budget was due July 1, but lawmakers and Shapiro have remained far apart on many issues, including transit funding, Medicaid spending and how to regulate and tax games of skill.
Party leaders have been tight-lipped about issues they have reached agreement on.
School districts and county governments have warned that missed payments could soon stress their programming, if they haven’t already.
Democrats in the Senate Appropriations Committee introduced an amendment to set funding in the budget bill at House Democrats’ $50.6 billion proposal from July. Republicans on the committee, led by Lancaster County Republican Scott Martin, shot it down.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, targeted the bill’s chances in the House during floor debate: “It’s just an exercise in futility.”
Transit funds
Senate Republicans also passed a two-year plan, pulling $292 million this year from the state’s Public Transportation Trust Fund, for mass transit agencies.
This year’s tab matches that proposed by Shapiro and passed by the House multiple times, but Democrats have repeatedly said using money from the trust fund is a nonstarter. Democrats’ proposal, most recently passed Monday, would use funds from the state’s sales tax.
Republicans have argued the agencies could pull from the trust fund — some $2.4 billion, according to the Treasury Department. Democrats said the dollars are already allocated for agencies’ capital projects.
“While the Senate now acknowledges that our transit systems face an imminent funding crisis, robbing Peter to pay Paul, on steroids, is not a serious solution,” Bradford said in a statement Tuesday. “Raiding the trust fund and redirecting capital funding without sufficient sustainable and recurring revenue will not avert this funding crisis.”
He added, “This will not pass the House.”
Shapiro’s spokesman, Manual Bonder, called the transit bill “not a serious long-term proposal.”
“It’s time to get back to the table and keep working at it,” Bonder said.