Pennsylvania has a Budget— Here’s What’s In It

Passed more than two weeks after the June 30 deadline, Harrisburg has a deal. The House passed the budget 167-35, the Senate 44-6. The companion Fiscal Code (SB 146) cleared 188-14 and 46-4. Bipartisan margins, no drama at the finish line — a sharp contrast to the standoff that got us here. 

A note before the numbers: passing a budget isn’t a bonus round for the legislature — it’s the one thing they’re constitutionally obligated to do every year. This is the fifth consecutive year Pennsylvania has blown past the June 30 deadline, and a quick resolution after the fact doesn’t erase that. Lawmakers don’t deserve credit for doing the job; nonprofits and the communities they serve are the ones who absorb the cost of the delay every time it happens. 

THE TOPLINE 

• $50.85 billion in General Fund spending — up 3.7% from last year, and $1.1 billion below what Shapiro proposed in February. 

• Zero dollars pulled from the Rainy Day Fund. It stays intact at nearly $8 billion.  

• No tax increases. The Corporate Net Income Tax phase-down stays on schedule, dropping to 6.99% next year. 

• Skill games, cannabis, minimum wage: all left out. None of the revenue fights that dominated this spring made it into the final deal. 

WHAT’S IN IT FOR NONPROFITS 

• Human services got real money: rape crisis centers nearly doubled funding (+$12 million), county child welfare systems up $50 million, nursing home Medicaid reimbursement raised to 86 cents on the dollar, $10 million for the 988 crisis line, $5 million for mental health walk-in centers. 

• K-12 got $678 million more — most of it through the Ready to Learn Block Grant, now at $1.9 billion. 

• EITC stays untouched — no funding increase, but also no new reporting mandates or compliance burden. The concerns PANO flagged around HB 2632 didn’t carry into the final budget. 

• Workforce dollars moved too: Career and Technical Education up $10 million, child care staff retention funding up to $30 million, student teacher stipends doubling to $40 million. 

WHAT DIDN’T MAKE IT 

• No skill games regulatory framework — the Supreme Court’s ruling stands, enforcement stayed until mid-October.  

• No minimum wage increase. 

• No cannabis legalization. 

THE FINE PRINT 

The Fiscal Code, the policy vehicle, folds in provisions from at least 15 separate bills: SNAP moving to chip-enabled cards, data centers now required to report annual energy and water use (but keeping their sales tax exemption), new Utica Shale drilling standards, pension COLAs for retirees for the first time since 2002, and a $580 million transfer into the General Fund from other state funds to help make the numbers work. 

BOTTOM LINE: This budget includes new money for human services and schools, maintains the Rainy Day fund and suggests no new taxes. That’s not a footnote — it’s the pattern nonprofits have had to plan around for five years running.