Millions of state dollars for schools, counties, nonprofits and other human service providers are on hold because Gov. Josh Shapiro and the leaders of the General Assembly have not reached an agreement on Pennsylvania's spending plan.
Each day without a budget puts further financial strain on local governments and agencies, some of which are either weighing or already have obtained loans to cover expenses, like the School District of Lancaster and Steelton-Highspire School District.
The state budget impasse happened despite months of work to avoid it — Shapiro delivered his budget address in February, while legislators held a series of budget hearings and were in session for multiple weeks before the July 1 to June 30 fiscal year began.
None of this is exactly new for the Keystone State, where lawmakers have often failed to pass a budget on time — this is the fourth consecutive year the commonwealth entered a new fiscal year without a spending plan.
Some lawmakers are looking to break the pattern, though their ideas have garnered little traction in the General Assembly.
For example, state Reps. Jill Cooper, R-Westmoreland, and Jim Haddock, D-Luzerne, introduced a bill in June to block pay for legislators, the governor and the lieutenant governor until a state budget has been adopted.
"If elected state officials felt the pain first, financially, it may give more incentive for them to put pressure on their leadership," Haddock said.
Their bipartisan legislation currently sits in limbo in the House Appropriations Committee.
Haddock laughed when asked if he'd gotten any pushback from his colleagues over his proposal to freeze their pay. In conversations discussing his bill, he said other lawmakers point fingers and blame members of the other party.
"But we're in this together," Haddock said.
In 2009, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that state government employees, including lawmakers, must continue to receive their salaries. Before then, all state salaries were frozen during a budget impasse.
Some lawmakers during past prolonged budget stalemates have returned or refused their salaries. This year, according to the House chief clerk's office, 10 House members have done so. The Senate chief clerk's office did not provide a list.
The average rank-and-file lawmaker makes about $110,000 annually — meaning the vast majority of the 253 legislators have made at least $15,000 this fiscal year. That's excluding the per diems and other perks available to lawmakers.
Shapiro has blamed the back-to-back budget delays since he took office on the fact that he's negotiating with a divided General Assembly, where Democrats hold a narrow majority in the House and Republicans control the Senate.
Meanwhile, legislative leaders have lobbed insults at the other party for passing proposals they know are dead on arrival in their chamber.
Caught in the crossfire are their constituents, many of whom rely on state services or payments.
Budget woes
Many other states don't seem to have the same budget timing problems as Pennsylvania, at least this year.
As of mid-August, only four states are operating without a finalized budget: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oregon and North Carolina.
While North Carolina has a law that continues funding at the previous year's rate until a new budget is signed into law, Pennsylvania lacks such a rule.
State Rep. Marla Brown, R-Lawrence, wants to ensure payments continue during a budget impasse, specifically for certain essential services dealing with domestic violence, mental and behavioral health, intellectual disabilities, substance abuse treatment, and counties' children and youth programs.
"I think the people that are at the negotiating table need to listen to the field more, get closer to the concerns of those that they represent," Brown said. "Because there's a lot of people being hurt by prolonging this."
Brown's bipartisan proposal has sat idle in the House Appropriations Committee since June 16. She said legislative leaders are likely resistant to changing budget rules to ensure lawmakers feel the pressure of a deadline.
"I think it's an embarrassment that we let it come to this," Brown said of this year's negotiations.
Pennsylvania's longest budget delay — nine months — occurred under Gov. Tom Wolf in 2015 and 2016, temporarily shutting down state-funded pre-K programs and domestic violence centers.
A year later, in July 2017, lawmakers passed a funding plan that was $2 billion out of balance. That disparity was not rectified until months later, when legislators approved balanced spending bills — often called code bills in the Capitol.
Vermont is the only state that's not required to balance its budget, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
After the 2017 budget mess, as reported by WHYY, some lofty proposals were put forward to change how Pennsylvania lawmakers craft a budget, including one unsuccessful bill that would have required that code bills be passed in tandem with the overall spending plan.
Another reform proposal this year would potentially cause the largest impact in Harrisburg.
Sen. Lisa Boscola's not-yet-introduced legislation would set Pennsylvania on a two-year spending plan. Similar bills have been introduced in past legislative years with little support.
"A two-year budget cycle would bring much-needed stability and predictability to the process. It would encourage long-range planning by state agencies and organizations that depend on state support," Boscola, D-Northampton, wrote in a memo to lawmakers.
Twenty states use a two-year budget, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Where it stands
It's unclear where budget negotiations stand this year. Leaders in both parties have repeatedly insisted that talks are progressing.
Legislative leaders disagree on a total spending number, as well as specific allocations for education, mass transit, and human services, like Medicaid. They also remain apart on how to tax and regulate games of skill.
Republican state senators adopted a temporary state budget in August to continue state funding largely at last year's levels, but it was shot down by House Democrats last week.
House Appropriations Chairman Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, said majority lawmakers did so to maintain a "sense of urgency" to wrap up budget talks.
Beth Rementer, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, said lawmakers work to pass timely budgets every year.
"While we're willing to review any legislation that increases accountability for the budget negotiation process, we should not piecemeal a budget," Rementer said. "We passed a budget and we passed transit funding. We're doing our job. The Senate needs to do theirs."
Spokespeople for Shapiro and Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, did not respond to a question asking what they're doing to avoid future budget impasses.
Lawmakers suspending their pay due to the budget
- Rep. Tim Brennan, D-Bucks.
- Rep. Frank Burns, D-Cambria.
- Rep. Jill Cooper, R-Westmoreland.
- Rep. Jamie Flick, R-Lycoming.
- Rep. Tom Jones, R-Lancaster.
- Rep. Brett Miller, R-Lancaster.
- Rep. Brenda Pugh, R-Luzerne.
- Rep. Jeremy Shaffer, R-Allegheny.
- Rep. Melissa Shusterman, D-Chester.
- Rep. Perry Warren, D-Bucks.
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