HARRISBURG, P.A. (KYW Newsradio) — Days after the Pennsylvania House passed the framework of a budget, the state’s spending plan is back in flux after the State Senate’s Appropriations Committee gutted the bill.
While the meaningful budget negotiations continue behind closed doors, as they typically do in Pennsylvania between the governor and leaders of the State House and Senate, the Democratic majority and three Republicans in the State House passed a general budget bill on Monday. House Republican leaders made it clear the bill was not a plan they agreed to.
When the bill got to the Republican-majority State Senate, the Appropriations Committee struck out all of it. After a second consideration in the State Senate, the gutted bill was then sent back to the Senate Appropriations Committee with no replacement plan, and no future session or committee meeting dates on the calendar.
This latest impasse comes 17 days after the state’s constitutional deadline for its budget on June 30. However, it’s become the norm for state lawmakers to blow through that deadline.
That doesn’t mean the ongoing delay won’t have major effects on many nonprofits and school districts throughout the state. With no budget in place, they may have to take out loans to cover payroll and other required payments. The state funding would reimburse some of those expenses, but not the fees and interest associated with the loans.