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Hi —
Late Friday, the state legislature passed its FY22 budget, which turned out to be a huge missed opportunity to use federal stimulus funds to improve the lives of Pennsylvanians and invest in our future.
That’s because instead of taking full advantage of the unprecedented resources Pennsylvania has from a budget surplus and the federal American Rescue Plan — which could have been used on anything from public school funding to water infrastructure programs — Republican lawmakers decided to squirrel away most of that money for “tomorrow’s challenges,” — which is code for future budget deficits.
Failing to address the challenges we’re facing right now is an injustice to the millions of working families and communities across Pennsylvania who are negatively impacted by crumbling infrastructure, polluted water, and a lack of training programs to take advantage of job opportunities in diverse and growing clean energy industries.
Pennsylvanians shouldn’t allow our elected officials to revert back to an economy that unquestionably favored some at the expense of so many families who were left behind. We can and must do better — but our lawmakers need to hear from constituents like you right now in order to make that happen.
Urge your state lawmakers to appropriate the remaining American Rescue Plan funds to clean our waterways, maintain our green spaces, and support our growing clean energy jobs >>
The goal of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan was to not only rescue Americans from the temporary displacement caused by COVID-19, but to rescue Americans who have been waiting for decades, if not centuries, for their struggles to be seen and heard. Pennsylvania received nearly $7.3 billion in federal aid to lift up its residents and provide direct relief to those who have been most impacted by the pandemic, but only $1 billion is being used in the new state budget.1
While the budget did make some modest investments in schools, health care, and veterans, it failed to follow the spirit of this once-in-a-generation legislation. Holding money in reserve rather than putting it to use on smart, community projects like one-time capital improvement projects for transit agencies is irresponsible.
The Pennsylvania General Assembly already underfunds our environmental infrastructure and pollution liabilities by billions of dollars each year. Despite having the resources to clean up our water, maintain our parks and forests, address environmental injustices, and transition workers to good-paying clean energy jobs, state lawmakers are punting on these issues and simply giving cost-of-living raises for our environmental watchdog agencies rather than fully funding them to adequately do their job. In the process, they are refusing to invest in the future of every single Pennsylvanian.
This can has been kicked down the road for so many years that it’s run out of asphalt. Please, friend, send a message to your lawmakers urging them to take the opportunity to leverage federal investments seriously by ensuring that the remainder of funds are appropriated as soon as possible so the Commonwealth can build towards a strong future.
Thanks for speaking out today.
Katie Blume
Political Director
Conservation Voters of PA
1 – "PA received $7.3 billion in federal COVID-19 rescue aid. The new state budget spends $1 billion of that money," PennLive, June 25, 2021.
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