HARRISBURG (TNS) — Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget address was barely finished Tuesday before opponents started picking it apart. House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Lancaster) even went so far as to call it a “phishing scam,” something that appears just too good to be true.
House Republican Appropriations Chairman Seth Grove (R-York) called the governor’s plan “unaffordable, irresponsible and misleading.” And the entire York Republican delegation banded together and vowed to oppose it.
In doing so, these legislators also will be opposing a lot of people whose prayers were answered in the governor’s budget. People barely scrapping by on $7.25 an hour won’t be happy to hear well-paid legislators with per diems are intent upon crushing their hope of a better life.
Elderly Pennsylvanians trying to eke out home repairs from their Social Security checks won’t be happy to hear legislators living in fine homes want to scuttle money to help them stay warm in winter. And faculty and students at the state-funded universities won’t be so happy, either. The budget offers them a way of out their fiscal morass.
Most of all, families taking care of loved ones who are sick or who have disabilities will be irate if their hopes of finally getting help are dashed. They have been pleading for years for an increase in Medicaid payments to help provide home healthcare workers a decent wage. Gov. Shapiro’s budget is nothing less than a ray of hope sent down directly from heaven.
Mark Davis, President and CEO of Pennsylvania Advocacy and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities (PAR), was clearly overjoyed at the governor’s budget. He issued a statement within hours of the address, thanking the governor “for his commitment to address the chronic underfunding this system has endured for decades.”
Davis said the money Shapiro has allocated to increase the pay of “Direct Support Professionals” will help many families finally be able to get professional in-home care for the people they love. These families are not likely to take kindly to talk of scrapping a plan that Davis says would help ease their “intolerable hardships.”
There are other things in Shapiro’s budget that have many people cheering — like a plan to address gun violence in the commonwealth. His approach is rational and moderate, establishing a state office to investigate and implement the best approaches to make our communities safer.
Opponents of the governor’s budget proposal say it’s too expensive, and they’re fed up with government programs that promise the moon. But if the governor’s accountants have their math right, the state will still have $11 billion in its coffers at the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year. That’s after the prayers of so many Pennsylvanians have been answered.
Pennsylvania legislators will tear into the governor’s budget over the next few weeks, but they should make sure they look at more than just their calculators. They should look into the faces of the thousands of men, women and children that the governor’s budget would help.
Take away their hope, and you can say goodbye to their votes.
(Joyce M. Davis is PennLive’s outreach and opinion editor.)
