Matt Bradford: A self-inflicted Pa. budget crisis

In a very complicated place like the state Capitol, for once, things are simple. There is no budget impasse. And there was no “Great Betrayal.” The hyperbolic rhetoric from the Senate over the past few weeks would make you think otherwise and requires that the record be set straight.

As the House majority, our caucus has had a significant seat at the table during budget negotiations — a responsibility we have not taken lightly. We have been working in good faith with the governor and Senate Republican majority to enact a bipartisan budget that moves Pennsylvania forward.

And we passed a budget — twice, in fact. Unfortunately, this budget process never got off to a strong start and finally ran off the rails when Senate Republicans grossly miscalculated in attempting to ram through an unagreed-to budget plan at quite literally the 11th hour, including a brand-new private school voucher proposal without time to discuss, analyze or debate such a controversial policy. Furthermore, this ill-informed plan failed to acknowledge that the Commonwealth Court had just months earlier held that the Legislature was not adequately or equitably funding our constitutional responsibility to public education.

We never had to get to this acrimonious point. Senate Republicans knew that there was no deal. They heard it loud and clear multiple times from me and from the governor. First, House Democrats were very clear — we wanted a state budget that included significant investments in our schools and moved forward on some of our biggest policy priorities, including finally raising the minimum wage, and finally upholding the Senate’s previous commitment to provide justice to survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

We also made clear our caucus’ priorities, including Level Up funding for our poorest school districts, Whole Home Repairs to recapitalize this very successful program to keep families in their homes, and School Construction and Remediation including Solar for Schools, to improve the facilities where our kids learn and make them energy efficient to ensure their financial stability long term.

As part of this year’s budget, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman and I discussed several times that House Democrats would not support vouchers. We discussed what a budget with vouchers would look like and conversely what a budget without vouchers would look like.

At one point in the conversation, I explained to Pittman that he was asking us to move on a very controversial issue for our caucus, and yet he was unwilling to move on issues important to our caucus to improve the quality of life for all Pennsylvanians. He looked me directly in the eye and said, “I’m not asking you for anything.”

Time and again, both the governor and I very clearly communicated to Pittman that, without a larger budget agreement, there could be no deal.

Nonetheless, without further conversation and without the agreement of the governor or House Democrats, the Senate unilaterally passed a budget that included an unagreed-to $100 million appropriation for private school vouchers and promptly attempted to leave town.

Despite their attempt to short-circuit negotiations, we reached out to the Senate Republicans to discuss next steps. We received a terse reply that there was nothing to talk about and to let them know when we were ready to talk about private school funding.

To avoid a budget impasse and ensure that political gamesmanship did not interfere with funding for our most vulnerable, the governor and House Democrats agreed to move the budget already passed by the Senate forward with the commitment that the governor would line-item veto the private school voucher appropriation under the authority granted to the executive in the Pennsylvania Constitution.

And now we wait for the Senate to deliver the very budget they authored and was already passed by both chambers in a bipartisan fashion to the governor for his signature.

Everything that occurred during the last few weeks was the result of blind indifference by those who thought they could force a deal upon our chamber. There was no “Great Betrayal.” No one lied to the Senate Republicans. They chose to not listen.

Rep. Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, is the Pennsylvania House Majority Leader.