Harrisburg – After listening to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s first budget address today, State Senator John DiSanto (Dauphin) expressed his disappointment and called for a better budget for hardworking Pennsylvanians.
DiSanto said, “While Gov. Shapiro’s budget address was certainly long in time, it was short on policy proposals that Pennsylvanians need. While I support his call for the elimination of the state tax on cell phone bills, as paltry as it is, what nurses, teachers, police officers, small business owners and other hardworking Pennsylvanians actually deserve is a substantial cut in the state income tax or their local school property taxes. We should be ‘starving government’ and not taxpayers.”
“Instead, Shapiro proposed billions of dollars in new state spending that will lead to even higher taxes in a few short years as he runs out of the budgetary reserve I and my like-minded colleagues worked hard to grow from nothing to $5 billion (but still below the national average) and stopped former Gov. Wolf from blowing through. Hardworking Pennsylvanians aren’t looking for feel-good freebies from their politicians. They want limited, efficient government, low taxes and a level playing field, not one that benefits favored political groups. This budget isn’t that, and I’ll try to move us in the right direction over the next few months.”
“Just as the governor called for an ‘honest dialogue’ about increased higher education funding demands during a time of declining enrollments, we need an honest dialogue about all of his proposed new spending when our population is stagnant and greying. We must do better.”
The Senate Appropriations Committee will begin a series of public hearings on Shapiro’s 2023-24 budget plan on March 20.
CONTACT: Chuck Erdman cerdman@pasen.gov