Lawmakers meet business leaders for state budget update during hiatus from Harrisburg

• By Jaxon White/LNP | LancasterOnline

Pennsylvania’s often-missed budget deadline was the subject of multiple jokes at the Lancaster Chamber’s Thursday morning forum between four state lawmakers and dozens of local business owners and entrepreneurs.

“We are looking forward to June 30, or sometime around then,” said Eric Wilden with a grin, as he introduced the legislators to the crowd packed into the S. Dale High Leadership Center in East Lampeter Township. Wilden serves as Comcast Business’s government and external affairs senior manager.

Senate Appropriations Chair Scott Martin, a Martic Township Republican who holds significant sway over budget talks this year, was optimistic about the approaching deadline. “Hopefully we can pull something off.”

Martin’s pieces of the GOP-led “Grow PA” plan, looking to create new post-secondary school scholarship programs, passed in a near-unanimous vote Tuesday. He said Senate Republicans also will continue to push for regulatory reform and to expedite the reduction of the state’s corporate net income tax rate this year.

Those proposals, he said, are a “core tenet” of his party’s approach to attracting young workers to Pennsylvania.

Lawmakers have yet to strike a deal on key portions of the state’s funding, as they’re in the middle of a 12-day break from voting sessions. Neither the Senate nor the House are scheduled to return to Harrisburg for votes until June 24.

A general appropriations bill, setting the state’s total spending number and allocating the bulk of funds toward departments and programs, has not been approved by both chambers. Code bills, which dole out the funds, also haven’t been considered.

Lawmakers often blow past the budget deadline by a few days or weeks. Last year’s delay lasted more than five months, stalling funds for community colleges and public libraries.

The House earlier this week passed a $1.1 billion increase in public education funding based on this year’s Basic Education Funding Commission’s report and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal. The bill passed in a 107-94 vote Tuesday. All six of Lancaster County’s Republican representatives present for the vote opposed it. East Earl Township Republican state Rep. Dave Zimmerman was not present.

Though not serving in a formal leadership position, Lancaster state Rep. Mike Sturla chaired the commission and was the prime sponsor of the House Democrats’ proposal.

“Money does matter,” Sturla said at Thursday’s event. “And if it’s accountable, it really matters.”

Republican lawmakers have repeatedly criticized Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s $48.3 billion proposal, particularly his pitch to use $3 billion of the state’s roughly $14 billion reserve. Democrats have said that money can be used to fund education or other programs.

“We stand in a good financial position as a state,” said House Appropriations Chair Jordan Harris, a Philadelphia Democrat, Thursday. “It’s how we’re budgeting those resources in a way that we believe we will get a return,” Harris said, adding that further funding education is a key way to promote younger generations to stay in Pennsylvania.

Harris stressed there should be more state programs to promote technical programs for plumbers, electricians, nurses and direct care workers.

House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler, of Drumore Township, agreed with Harris on the need for career-specific training.

“If we focus on that and actually meet the employers’ needs, we can grow our economy, we will stabilize our population, and then by default our tax base,” Cutler said. He further echoed Martin’s point about Pennsylvania’s shrinking demographic of young workers, pointing to the state’s loss of Congressional seats in recent years.

But Cutler said the state also should work on rectifying some of its “hidden costs,” pointing to Medicaid reimbursement rates as an example. Cutler said those reimbursements paid to health care providers by the state often don’t match the actual expense of the care, forcing providers to upcharge for other patients’ treatments to level out the cost.

“Oftentimes we all agree on the same issues,” Cutler said. “We identify them, and then we sometimes disagree on the solutions.”