Pennsylvania House passes $45B budget plan
Pennsylvania's House has advanced a budget plan.
House Democrats on Monday unveiled and passed a spending plan that goes well beyond what Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed for the upcoming fiscal year. They want more money for public schools and said strong tax collections this spring will support it.
The plan passed on a party-line vote, 102-101.
It's likely to get a chilly reception in the Republican Senate. GOP leaders there were already skeptical of Shapiro's more modest spending proposal, citing forecasts of slowing tax collections, deficits and possibly a recession.
The House Democratic plan would increase spending by almost $1.4 billion above Shapiro's proposal, with about half of it for public schools. All told, it would boost spending for the 2023-24 fiscal year to $45 billion.
The plan includes no increases in income or sales taxes, the state's two main revenue sources. Most of the new money in it would go to education, health care and social services. Like Shapiro's plan, it relies on roughly $2 billion in reserves to balance.
Shapiro's budget plan, which he unveiled in March, proposes roughly $1 billion in new money for schools. That includes grants for mental health needs, security improvements and removing environmental hazards.
The budget deadline is June 30.