Andrew Lewis on New PA State Budget

After intense negotiations, Pennsylvania lawmakers finalized a state budget that reflects the realities of divided government and an election year. While the deal includes compromises, it also rejects Gov. Josh Shapiro’s worst proposals—including attacks on school choice, new taxes, and his costly Lightning Plan. 

No issue generated more heated debate during this year’s budget negotiations than the overwhelmingly popular Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program—and no issue better demonstrated why Commonwealth Foundation’s work matters.

After Gov. Shapiro and House Democrats launched an unprecedented attack on school choice, Commonwealth Foundation mobilized our network of parents, private schools, scholarship organization, advocates, and allies with speed and rigor.

Tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians answered our call by contacting lawmakers, creating a groundswell of opposition that forced House Democrats to abandon their initial proposal to immediately slash scholarships.

While this is far from the budget Pennsylvania deserves, it includes important victories that would not have happened without your support.

The final budget: 

• Rejects more than $1 billion of Gov. Shapiro’s proposed spending, avoiding the future tax hikes that would have been needed to sustain it. ​​​​​​
• Protects the Rainy Day Fund from efforts to raid it, preserving emergency savings for future economic downturns.
• Uses “couch cushion” money instead of raising taxes. Commonwealth Foundation helped shine a spotlight on roughly $5.3 billion in excess balances sitting in special funds and lapsed appropriations. This is money taxpayers have already paid but state bureaucracies have allowed to accumulate for years. By tapping these resources, lawmakers avoided tax hikes.
• ​​​​Stops Shapiro’s Lightning Plan. Pennsylvania families avoided dramatic increases to electricity bills by rejecting Shapiro’s green energy mandates and energy taxes.
• Protects education scholarships. The deal rejects the cruel and chaotic approach pushed by Shapiro and House Democrats to cut resources for scholarship organizations and threaten educational opportunities for thousands of students.
• Prevents charter school funding cuts that Shapiro and House Democrats fought to enact.

Your support made it possible to shape the debate in Harrisburg, mobilize tens of thousands of advocates, generate statewide media coverage, and keep relentless pressure on lawmakers when it mattered most. Throughout the negotiations, Commonwealth Foundation was at the center of the fight to shape the best outcome possible— running statewide ad campaigns, delivering targeted mail and text message activations in key legislative districts, equipping lawmakers with timely research, and pushing back against harmful policy proposals.

However, there’s still work to be done. This budget continues spending at levels that fail to address the state’s structural deficit, offering only temporary solutions to the state’s fiscal cliff. It does not expand school choice for the tens of thousands of students still waiting for scholarships. Nor does it advance the energy and economic reforms needed to make Pennsylvania more competitive.

Commonwealth Foundation will continue fighting for balanced budgets, expanded education choice for students, affordable and reliable energy, and a stronger economy that creates opportunity for every Pennsylvanian.

Because of your partnership, Pennsylvania families were protected from higher taxes, costly energy mandates, attacks on school choice, and efforts to drain the state’s emergency savings.

Together, we’ll keep building on these victories until Pennsylvania becomes the nation’s leading state for opportunity and prosperity.

Thank you for standing with us in the fight.

Forward,

Andrew Lewis
President and CEO
Commonwealth Foundation