The state House and Senate appropriations committees will meet for the first of nine days of hearings as part of the state budget process.
The House committee will have hearings concerning the Department of Community and Economic Development this morning, while the Senate committee will hear from officials with the Department of Revenue. In the afternoon, the House will invite the Department of Revenue while the Senate will have a hearing involving the state system of higher education and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. Hearings will continue to be held three days a week for the next three weeks.
State Senator Joe Pittman said the hearings will give them a chance to thoroughly examine the plan and ask administration officials about the need for any proposed increases.
State Representative Jim Struzzi, who is the Republican chair of the House Appropriations Committee has called Governor Shapiro’s plan “unsustainable” and criticized what he said was Shapiro’s refusal or failure to remove polices restricting the state’s energy industry. Pittman said that Shapiro’s budget did not address certain keynote items including school choice.
The budget deadline is June 30th.
