PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — While Pennsylvania Senate Republican Leader Joe Pittman says the state will once again miss the Constitutionally mandated June 30 budget deadline, Gov. Josh Shapiro says there are fewer sticking points this year. They’re continuing to try to find solutions.
“We all understand we have to compromise,” Shapiro said. “We also, I think, all understand the set of issues we have to work through, and we're going to continue to work through them. We're each going to have to give a little bit. We're going to make progress.”
Pittman says legalized marijuana will not be included in the budget. Shapiro says while he wrestles with recreational marijuana, he sees it as a “competitiveness issue” since Pennsylvanians drive to any bordering state except West Virginia to buy marijuana legally.
“And pay taxes to those states so those school kids get more money for their schools, their parks and roads and bridges get repaired, their mass transit systems get funded, their housing stock gets replenished. I'm not sure why we want to do that.”
Shapiro also remains optimistic that mass transit funding will make it into the budget, despite Pittman saying the Senate is unlikely to address the funding bill that has passed the State House.
On Tuesday, the state House passed a plan that shifts more revenue to public transportation and takes steps for comprehensive transportation funding reform. A similar bill passed the state House late last session but ran out of time in the Senate.