HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania lawmakers will return to Harrisburg next week, after the House passed legislation late Wednesday that would complete the budget. The saga has played out for months, and partisan disputes are muddying the water on what will happen next.
The bill passed with a 115-88 vote.
"What we did last week was move those bills over to the Senate," Representative Jordan Harris said.
Harris is the majority appropriations chair. He says the chamber addressed a variety of issues.
"We passed the tax code, fiscal code, school code," Harris said. "We also ran some bills around moving the primary election date."
The plan backed by the Democratic majority in the Statehouse would tackle several priorities. Harris explained that in their fiscal code, businesses operating in the commonwealth that claim an address elsewhere would be subject to combined reporting, and therefore could not skirt Pennsylvania taxes.
In the education code, Harris says a number of things were passed. The bill would increase the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit for students and families in some of the most disadvantaged areas. It also earmarked money in the budget for investments in facilities.
However, Republican Representative Seth Grove says House and Senate leadership are on different pages, and that the Governor needs join the conversation.
"When you have an impasse between two parties, we need a third party arbitrator to start negotiating. That has not happened," Grove said. "We're at still at a budget stalemate 101 days into it."
And if it continues, it would keep the more than $1 billion in appropriations tied up.
"There's a lot of dire funding that needs to go out there," Grove said. "It has a direct impact on Pennsylvania's health, welfare and safety."
A variety of programs are at risk. The laws that fund emergency dispatch centers will expire, which could lead counties to raise property taxes. The state’s Health Care Assessment that funds hospitals through Medicare won't go through. And various efforts to fund education in Pennsylvania would stall, such as the Pre-K Counts Grants.
The budget was among a handful of pieces of legislation that was voted on late Wednesday evening, fueling frustration.
Republicans call the measure unconstitutional and against House rules.
"One frustration citizens have is rules for me and not for thee," Grove said. "So if you want to make the rules, you got to follow the rules."
Democrats argue otherwise and say that the work needed to be done.
"We were doing the business of the people," Harris said. "I think Pennsylvanians want to know that their legislators are at work and doing the job of governing, just like many of them have to."