Late Wednesday night a general apportions budget was approved by the Pennsylvania house. The week before the budget was approved by the state Senate but the budget has still yet to make it to Governor Josh Shapiro’s desk.
Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward still needs to sign the budget before it heads to Governor Shapiro. Although, the senate will not be returning until September.
Many republicans are accusing Governor Shapiro of breaking agreements over a school voucher proposal. Representative from the 8th district Aaron Bernstine released a statement after the vote criticizing Shapiro for changing his support last minute, saying:
“The PA Award for Student Success (PASS) scholarship program would give students better educational opportunities. During his campaign, Shapiro supported school choice for our students, but when push came to shove, he sided with his Democrat colleagues and special interest groups.”
Representative from the 11th district Marci Mustello had hope that there would be trust between Governor Shapiro and the assembly.
“We all had hope to work with him and to trust him to a point before we could verify everything, just to trust him that he was someone new in the governors mansion,” said Mustello. “It wasn’t the same old 8 years that we were use to with Governor [Tom] Wolf, that maybe a fresh face in there would be a little bit more honest with us. So that was very disappointing to witness that and I think moving forward it’s going to be difficult for both sides of leadership to take him on his word.”
Senator Ward can still can the entire body back to the assembly if she were to decide to sign the budget sooner.
