The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Senate advanced proposals Tuesday to end the state's budget impasse and address funding problems at transit agencies for the next two years.
Both proposals passed along party lines, with all of the chamber's 27 Republicans voting in favor and the 22 Democrats present opposing.
For the measures to be enacted, they would need approval from the Democratic-controlled House and Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat from Montgomery County.
"If Gov. Shapiro and House Democrats reject this proposal, holding up funding is on the governor and House Democrats and they will have to answer to their constituents," Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, said of the $47.6 billion budget plan passed Tuesday.
Last week, Ward proposed adopting a six-month spending plan that would maintain last year's funding levels, so money could continue flowing to schools, hospitals and other important social services while negotiations continued on more contentious budgetary issues.
Republicans, noting that Shapiro and House Democrats had expressed opposition to a partial-year budget, said they opted to go with a yearlong budget instead "in the spirit of compromise."
Democrats criticized the GOP budget and transit plans as deeply flawed.
After the Republicans' transit plan was unveiled, Shapiro spokesman Manuel Bonder said in a statement, "While Gov. Shapiro appreciates Senate Republicans finally acknowledging the need to fund mass transit systems across the commonwealth, this is clearly not a serious, long-term proposal that can pass both chambers. It's time to get back to the table and keep working at it."
The transit funding issue is particularly time-sensitive. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) had said that without a plan for increased funding in place by Thursday, 20% across-the-board service cuts would take effect starting Aug. 24. SEPTA said it would eliminate bus routes with lower ridership and reduce the frequency of bus, trolley and rail services.
SEPTA would later raise fares, impose a hiring freeze and then, on Jan. 1, cut more service. After the second round of service cuts, SEPTA says it would have eliminated half of its current service.
In June, Pittsburgh Regional Transit passed an operating budget for the 2026 fiscal year that addressed a projected a $100 million deficit by planning to deeply cut service, lay off workers and raise fares, starting in February.
The GOP's $1.2 billion transit plan would dedicate $292.5 million from the Pennsylvania Public Transit Trust Fund to transit agencies and another $292.5 million to road and bridge projects across the state during this fiscal year. Those amounts would increase to $300 million in the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
The trust fund contains about $2.4 billion, according to lawmakers. It stood at $370 million in 2019, Republicans said.
"That $2.4 billion, the vast majority has already been spoken for ... for capital projects across Pennsylvania," said state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-Bucks County. "It's like taking money out of the right pocket of (transit agencies), putting it in the left pocket and telling them, 'We've made you richer.' It's a shell game."
Republicans argued that much of the money in the trust fund has not been earmarked for specific capital projects -- at least, no documentation they said they requested shows that it has.
"It's common sense that we use money that's sitting there instead of putting everything on the back of taxpayers," Ward said Tuesday on the Senate floor.
Proposals by Shapiro and Democrats would generate the same amount of new funding for transit by increasing the share of existing sales and use tax revenues dedicated to agencies.
Directing his comments to Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, said, "You might not like the recipe of the soup we've made, but it addresses" the funding problems facing SEPTA, PRT and other transit agencies while also targeting poor roads and bridges.
As for the budget, the GOP plan passed Tuesday is $3 billion smaller than the $50.6 billion proposed budget that passed the House in mid-July.
The Democratic proposal had increased spending for Medicaid by more than $2 billion and increased education funding by more than $800 million. It would have relied on using $4.5 billion of the state's $11 billion in reserves to balance.
"Pennsylvania is at a critical crossroads financially," Ward said. "Senate Republicans have put forward a solution that protects taxpayers, and Gov. Shapiro and House Democrats still have not answered what taxes are they willing to raise on Pennsylvanians."