Kim Ward suggests ‘six-month budget’ amid ongoing PA budget impasse

As Democrats and Republicans in Harrisburg continue to remain at odds over the details of the state’s annual budget, the president pro tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate said Tuesday that lawmakers may want to consider a shorter, six-month spending plan in the interim. 

Speaking with Philadelphia talk radio station 1210 WPHT, Ward told host Dawn Stensland that school choice proposals and mass transit funding remain top sticking points in state budget negotiations, adding that if the state leaders fail to reach agreement on a new spending plan soon, lawmakers should try a different approach. 

“If we can’t come to … an agreement on this budget in the next week or so, we should just pass a six-month budget while we keep working,” Ward told the radio station on Tuesday. “Because tax dollars continue to come into Pennsylvania. They are continuing to hit the Treasury. For us to hold everybody hostage because we can’t agree on mass transit and education issues is a travesty – and it shouldn’t happen. We shouldn’t let it happen.”

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro laid out a $51.5 billion executive budget proposal in February. His spending plan called for increased education funding, legalized recreational cannabis, a tax on so-called games of skill, and increased funding for mass transit, which comes as multiple mass transit agencies across the state beg for more state funding to plug budget holes.

Since Pennsylvania’s fiscal calendar runs from July 1 to June 30, the commonwealth hasn’t had an enacted budget for more than a month – and counting. 

Lawmakers in the state House voted to pass a General Fund budget bill on July 14 with a 105-97 vote, though the legislation, which had a total spend number of $50.6 billion, was not agreed to by all four legislative caucuses; talks continue on reaching consensus on a state budget. 

Ward said the issue of school choice remains a top priority for Republicans in the General Assembly; her colleagues in the state Senate once again reintroduced legislation this year that would use state tax dollars to fund scholarships for students to attend private schools. “We’re trying to work the school choice issue out,” Ward said on Tuesday. 

Ward also commented on the ongoing debate over public transit funding in Pennsylvania, an issue that has received outsized attention in the commonwealth as regional transit organizations say more state funding is needed to stave off service cuts. 

“We do need to ask these public transit authorities to make sure that they are doing everything administratively to keep costs down,” Ward said, while adding that commonwealth leaders could tap into a new source of revenue – taxes from currently unregulated skill gaming machines – to address funding concerns surrounding mass transit. 

“We do have ideas on how we can maybe continue to get funding for these organizations, and one of those ideas is to change the regulations for gaming,” Ward said. 

“If they don’t want to do that, I need them to tell us: We want to hear what tax they are willing to raise on the people of Pennsylvania, because they don’t want to take money out of their trust fund – the Public Transit Trust Fund,” Ward said, referencing Democrats in Harrisburg. 

“They want to take money out of the Rainy Day Fund, which is there for all of Pennsylvania to keep our financial situation secure and to have it in case we need it … We don’t need to take money out of that. I just find it ironic that they’ll take money from all of Pennsylvania, but they won’t take it out of the fund that’s there for them.”

House lawmakers voted 107-96 on June 17 to approve legislation from Democratic state Rep. Ed Neilson that would increase the percentage of sales tax revenue allocated to the Public Transportation Trust Fund from 4.4% to 6.15%, which would result in an additional $292.5 million transferred to the fund. The bill mirrors Shapiro’s mass transit funding pitch, and is currently in the Senate Transportation Committee, where it awaits a vote.