The State Senate may not be in session this week, but the majority leader is speaking out about several issues in front of lawmakers as the budget deadline looms.
Senator Joe Pittman said that the $46.4 billion budget passed by the State House is an impossible budget to work with. The budget was passed by the House on June 5th on a 102-101 party line vote, and contains $1 billion more in spending than Governor Josh Shapiro requested in his proposed budget. Pittman said that there are a few areas that Democrats and Republicans are in agreement on, like moving funding to support state police operations from the motor license fund to the general fund, but the overall spending number, according to the senate Republican Caucus, is “not sustainable:”
He also suggested that the $15/hour minimum wage could be a topic of discussion at negotiations, but he says that the proposed rate is not good. He says that if the House sends a minimum wage bill, they will take a look at it and react accordingly.
Pittman also doesn’t anticipate that the budget will be ready to go by the deadline of June 30th. He did say that Governor Shapiro has been engaged with the legislation in budget discussions, but he is more concerned that the right budget is in place to help all state residents. In past years, state government and agencies that depend on state funding will be able to go a few weeks into the new fiscal year without major disruptions in services if a budget is not in place by the deadline.
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