State Senate majority leader outlines way to resolve budget mess
INDIANA, Pa. (KDKA) -- Both houses of the state legislature have passed the same state budget, but it's not likely to get to the governor's desk anytime soon.
While the Democratic-controlled state House and the Republican-controlled state Senate both approved the same $45.5 billion budget, it cannot get to the governor's desk for signature until Senate Republicans reconvene the Senate for the Senate's presiding officer to sign the Senate-approved bill.
"We did recess until September 18th," Senate Republican Majority Leader Joe Pittman said.
Republican leaders recessed because the budget approved includes a special school voucher program for certain parents that Gov. Josh Shapiro agreed to with Senate Republicans but then later said he would line-item veto when House Democrats refused to pass the budget unless he agreed to do that.
"The problem that we have is that Senate Republicans feel they negotiated in good faith," said Pittman.
In a sit-down interview with KDKA-TV political editor Jon Delano at Pittman's Indiana, Pennsylvania, office, Pittman was clear that Republicans feel misled.
Delano: "What went wrong?"
Pittman: "Well, I'm not sure what the relationship is with the governor and his Democratic Party leadership in the House. Truthfully, it's not for me to find out. We believe as a Senate majority that when we were negotiating with Gov. Shapiro, that that negotiation was a unified negotiation with the House Democrats."
Delano: "Did Gov. Shapiro lie to you?"
Pittman: "I'm not going to say he lied to me. No."
While Pittman won't accuse the governor of lying, he says Senate Republicans supported House Democratic items in the budget in exchange for school vouchers, and Shapiro's line-item veto would leave them on the short end of the compromise.
WATCH: Senate Republican leader talks about funding for universities
"We feel that we funded initiatives that candidly we were not entirely comfortable with," Pittman said.
So in order to move ahead, Pittman says there has to be a reset or do-over of parts of the budget.
"I don't know that we have to rebuild an entirely new budget, but there certainly has to be a recognition that the subtraction of empowering parents has to correlate with the subtraction of priorities for the House Democrats, in particular, that we would not have funded in good faith negotiations," Pittman said.
Pittman hopes the governor will agree to line-item veto the Democratic provisions Republicans object to or find some other way to ensure they are not implemented.
Delano: "It sounds like you're in a real deadlock. There's going to have to be movement by somebody for this to go forward or there's no budget."
Pittman: "Well, there's going to have to be movement, and I certainly recognize that. I think that members of the Senate Republican majority recognize there's going to have to be some movement at some point but it also means our friends on the other side of the building are going to have to recognize that as well."
It's a budget mess that appears to be a long way from being resolved.
WATCH: One-on-one interview with Senate Republican Majority Leader Joe Pittman
