Don’t Be Fooled by Shapiro—Six Times the Governor Pranked Pennsylvanians

April Fools’ Day is an annual reminder that you can’t believe everything you see or hear. Pranksters unleash a bevy of practical jokes, from Taco Bell claiming it bought the naming rights to the Liberty Bell to the Philadelphia Parking Authority issuing gag tickets.

But few Pennsylvania jokesters are as prolific as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. The governor has seemed to make a career of duping Pennsylvanians, saying one thing and doing the exact opposite. What follows are his most egregious pranks.

“Every child of God deserves quality education”

You know that famous scene in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, where Lucy pulls the football away before Charlie Brown can kick it? Shapiro reenacted this exact scene on July 5, 2023, with a few notable adaptations: Instead of a football, the governor snatched away $100 million in scholarships, and instead of Charlie Brown, it was hundreds of thousands of kids stuck in Pennsylvania’s chronically failing schools.

As a candidate, Shapiro promised to adopt Lifeline Scholarships. Then, as governor, he reaffirmed his commitment to the program, even appearing on Fox News to do so. Finally, he shook hands with state lawmakers, securing the program’s inclusion in the 2023–24 budget.

However, after an intense pressure campaign by teacher unions and partisan Democrats, Shapiro yanked away the scholarship program at the last second by line-item vetoing it from the budget—his first and only veto as governor. He even had the gall to call Lifeline Scholarships “unfinished business.”

It’s backstabbing decisions like this that have Pennsylvanians saying, “Good grief!”

“I live in the real world, where we have to balance budgets.”

Shapiro uttered this nonsense on Real Time with Bill Maher. However, at that very moment, his budget proposal projected a $5 billion deficit. Since then, that number has grown. 

In fact, during his tenure as governor, Shapiro has not yet submitted a single balanced spending plan. Instead, he often relies on budgetary gimmicks to fudge the numbers—dipping into the Rainy Day Fund, flat-funding programs that we all know he’s going to propose spending more on, and exaggerating revenue projections—to keep his plans in the black.

As somebody who fashions himself as a pragmatic moderate, Shapiro certainly likes to spend more money than the General Fund has. And until he quits his bad habit of deficit spending, Shapiro’s “real world” looks more like a fiscally irresponsible fantasy land.

“I’ve cut taxes seven times.”

No, you really haven’t, Mr. Governor. As we have covered before, most of the tax cuts Shapiro cites are merely rebates or tax credits, not genuine tax-rate reductions.

In fact, the only purported tax cut to see its overall rate reduced was the Corporate Net Income Tax (CNIT). Pennsylvania’s CNIT is scheduled to shrink from 9.99 percent, the second-highest in the nation, to 4.99 percent by 2031.

But Shapiro had nothing to do with that. Instead, his predecessor, Gov. Tom Wolf, signed the tax cut into law in 2022. Shapiro campaigned to accelerate the reduction but, unsurprisingly, never followed through.

Suffice it to say, the governor has done very little to lower taxes for Pennsylvanians. If anything, his policies, as discussed in the next section, will have the reverse effect.

“My budget actually cuts taxes.”

Quite the opposite, actually.

First, the governor pitched new taxes on skilled games, legalized cannabis, and “combined reporting” taxes on businesses—three proposals unlikely to pass the legislature. But rather than calling these taxes, the Shapiro administration prefers euphemisms like “new revenue streams.”

The governor’s energy policies, dubbed the “Lightning Plan,” would also enact a new carbon tax, similar to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). If you may recall, Pennsylvania lawmakers agreed to axe the commonwealth’s RGGI membership during last year’s budget negotiations—and for good reasons. If enacted, Shapiro’s Lightning Plan would more than double Pennsylvanians’ electricity bills over the next decade. 

Let’s also not forget the $7 billion structural deficit that the governor’s budget ignores. “The deficit is such a magnitude now that it’s likely that a broad-based tax increase will be necessary at some point in the next five years,” says Matthew Knittel, director of the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO).

Seems like the joke’s on Pennsylvania taxpayers because Shapiro’s budget will most certainly raise taxes on them.

“I’m a GSD governor.”

If April Fools’ Day also doubled as “opposite day,” maybe this would ring true. GSD, short for “get stuff done” (at least the PG-13 version), is Shapiro’s favorite self-proclaimed abbreviation.

Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The governor’s mantra loses credibility when you examine his legislative successes—or lack thereof.

During his first three years as governor, Shapiro was the least-productive governor in Pennsylvania history.

Pennsylvanians certainly can’t point toward any of his accomplishments. Polling finds that half of Pennsylvanians are either unsure or couldn’t cite any specific examples of the governor’s achievements.

To deflect from this inactivity, Shapiro often points out that he presides over a “divided legislature.” However, Wolf did the same yet still outproduced Shapiro. Also, governors from other states with split legislatures, such as former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2023, have far surpassed Shapiro’s lackluster record.

Despite his attempts to make GSD catch on, Shapiro simply has not gotten stuff done for Pennsylvanians.

“I move at the speed of business.”

Shapiro fancies himself as some kind of business-friendly politician, often claiming he is “competitive as hell.”

The governor likes to believe his “reforms” are speeding up the time it takes for businesses to gain government approval for their projects. Shapiro often cites the Streamlining Permits for Economic Expansion and Development program (SPEED) as an example of “fast tracking” Pennsylvania’s obtuse regulatory environment, which routinely scares businesses away.

However, SPEED only applied to a small fraction of Pennsylvania’s permits. In fact, it took legislative action to expand SPEED’s scope and expedite permit issuance.

Instead of broad-based regulatory reform, Shapiro prefers to pick winners and losers in the marketplace. The governor often proposes billions in corporate welfare, such as tax credits, subsidies, and loans to “attract” businesses to Pennsylvania.

However, the return on these investments is abysmal. An IFO review found that these programs return less than 25 cents per dollar spent. 

More often, these schemes attract zero businesses. The Pennsylvania Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) program, a $2.6 billion tax credit package, went completely unused.

Shapiro’s reliance on corporate welfare has not improved the commonwealth’s economy. In fact, more Pennsylvanians have left the commonwealth in search of states with lower taxes and fewer regulations, such as Florida, Texas, and the Carolinas.

If he believes he’s moving at the speed of business, we might need to get his speedometer checked because Shapiro looks like he’s stuck in neutral.

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Sadly, Shapiro’s trickery isn’t limited to just today. Instead, they span his entire tenure as governor.

And his dishonesty has genuinely hurt Pennsylvanians. His deceptive rhetoric and two-timing actions have denied them expanded educational choice, affordable energy, and a fiscally solvent government.

Don’t be fooled by Shapiro. Keep your head on swivel whenever Shapiro speaks because—in the famous words of The Who—we won’t get fooled again.