Pennsylvania's Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed a temporary spending plan to keep certain critical payments flowing as a battle over the state budget continues.
Their Democratic colleagues in the state House say that plan — and a separate funding bill for public transit agencies — will be "dead on arrival" in the House.
Here's a look at what you need to know about the ongoing impasse through reporting from our sister public broadcasting stations from around Pennsylvania:
'Is what we’re doing today the total answer?'
That depends on who you ask.
“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.
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, Jaxon White of WITF reports.
Budget negotiations “will move along,” according to Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman. “We will continue to have our healthy debate.”
But House Democratic leadership, in a joint statement Tuesday evening, said Senate Republicans “failed to do their job.”
Democrats oppose GOP education, transit plans
As Tom Riese and Jillian Forstadt from WESA report, a move by Republicans to terminate equity-gap payments for struggling public school districts is expected to be among the provisions likely to be at issue as the budget stalemate continues.
There were also signs of continued stalemate on other elements of the budget, as debate on a separate transit stopgap measure continued for hours on Tuesday night.
In response to a final plea from Philadelphia’s transit system to allocate public transportation dollars ahead of service cuts set to take place later this month, the Republican-led Senate agreed to a two-year funding plan. It assumes transit agencies will raise fares and would also release dollars from the $2.3 billion Public Transportation Trust Fund.
That money was intended to be spent on making capital improvements to transit systems: The GOP proposal would essentially use the money to cover operating costs instead, deferring already-planned equipment and infrastructure upgrades.
SEPTA funding still in limbo
While transit funding for agencies around the commonwealth hangs in the balance, the Philadelphia region's Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority — the state's largest — has been in the headlines for the dramatic cuts its leaders say the system faces if its funding needs aren't met.
Cory Sharber of WHYY explained what Tuesday night's developments could mean for SEPTA.