BETHLEHEM, Pa. — On Wednesday, Nov. 12, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed a $50.1 billion spending bill into law. The passage of this spending bill ends a 135-day impasse and increases funding by roughly 5% from 2024 levels.
The new funding increases are mostly concentrated on education and healthcare.
Basic education and mental health services in schools are seeing some of the greatest increases in funds from 2024.
A statement from Lehigh and Northampton counties Senator Nick Miller noted his approval of the increased funds for public education.
“Miller, who served on the 2023 Basic Education Funding Commission (BEFC), a bipartisan effort to construct a formula to properly fund the state’s public education system, advocated for another historic investment. This budget includes a $105 million increase from last year to a total $526 million investment for public schools, continuing to fulfill Pennsylvania’s court-ordered obligation to adequately and constitutionally fund our public schools.”
Additionally, the new law attempts to supplement the recent federal cuts to Medical Assistance. It also offers a substantial funding increase to Community HealthChoices: a mandatory managed care organization available to individuals eligible for Medicaid and Medicare, as well as those with disabilities.
For the past four months, the House’s democratic majority and the Senate’s republican majority stifled each other’s attempts to pass their preferred budget proposals.
This stalemate left social services, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), and some schools short of the funds necessary for operations.
The stress of the budget impasse was compounded by the record-long government shutdown.
Shapiro initially offered a $51.5 billion budget proposal to the legislature, but Republican lawmakers derided the governor’s attempts to increase spending by that degree.
Democrats dropped their proposal to $50.25 billion, though this did little to move the needle with the Republican contingent of the General Assembly.
Republicans in the legislature held firm on their $47.9 billion budget proposal, which would have funded the state much closer to 2024 levels.
As a compromise for the spending increase, Democrats offered to withdraw Pennsylvania from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multi-state, market-based program aimed at reducing CO2 emissions.
Currently, 10 Northeastern states (excluding Pennsylvania) are members of RGGI. States in RGGI set CO2 emissions limits that decline over time.
Certain power plants then must purchase allowances for every short ton of CO2 they emit. Allowances are auctioned quarterly by RGGI states to entities and can later be traded.
Revenues from the allowances are then used by RGGI states to invest back into communities or for energy-efficient initiatives.
The issue of withdrawing from RGGI is particularly important for a high-energy-producing state like Pennsylvania.
In 2023, the commonwealth ranked fourth among all states in CO2 emissions, according to an estimate from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Additionally, Pennsylvania had the third-highest share of U.S. coal production in 2022 and produced the second-most dry natural gas among U.S. states in 2023.
Still, Shapiro stressed the need for future energy legislation.
“Energy presents to me, I believe, the thing that sets Pennsylvania apart from any other state when it comes to economic competitiveness,” Shapiro said in a press conference after signing the spending bill. “I think we need to harness our energy and our natural resources- do it in a way that protects our public health, our public safety, our environment.”