| Dear Neighbor, I hope you are well! I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on several happenings in the district as well as Harrisburg.
As always, I hope you find this informative and useful.
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| Pennsylvania’s 23/24 Budget Update
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| As you may have heard by now, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed the 2023-24 Budget, House Bill 611, on Wednesday, July 5th. However, its implementation is delayed. The following explains how Pennsylvania got to this point, what it means, and where we can go from here.
Governor Shapiro gave his first budget address in March and outlined his priorities for the legislature’s consideration. HB 611 reflected the governor’s requests—with additional dollars directed to specific programs geared toward helping working Pennsylvanians. Once the bill was in the Senate, the controversial Lifeline Scholarship program, now known as the PASS program, was amended into the bill, which would have directed $100
million in public funds to a private school voucher program. Governor Shapiro vowed to veto the PASS program’s line item from the budget when it arrived at his desk. When HB 611 left the Senate chamber and returned to the House for concurrence, it passed with the promise of that line-item veto. I voted for HB 611, knowing that Governor Shapiro would honor that promise.
In my statement about H.B. 611, I called this budget a compromise. As Democrats, we stood firm against private school vouchers to prioritize the future of our public education system. However, it was disappointing to see valuable programs and line items sacrificed in order to eliminate vouchers and pass this budget without further delay. And while this budget doesn’t finish the job in addressing decades of underfunded public education, we’ve now come closer than ever in closing the gap.
Methacton School District will receive $11,297,268 in state funding, a 7.9% increase from last year.
Norristown Area School District will receive $31,953,809 in state funding, a 18.5% increase from last year.
Perkiomen Valley School District will receive $11,148,153 in state funding, a 7.1% increase from last year.
Spring-Ford Area School District will receive $16,800,385 in state funding, a 10.4 % increase from last year.
At this stage in the process, the budget must be signed by Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis in the presence of the convened PA Senate so that it can be forwarded to Governor Shapiro to be signed into law. The PA Senate’s calendar is set by President Pro Tempore Senator Kim Ward and the majority party. As of this email, they have publicly said that they will not return to session until September 18th.
This Senate delay is a delay in critical services and programs Pennsylvanians rely on every single day. It’s political gamesmanship that risks loss of crucial funding of PA programs for the next few months. I encourage you use your voice to contact your state senator’s office and tell them to return to session so the Pennsylvania budget can become law.
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