Media Hit

Will Shapiro Address the $3.6 Billion Elephant in the Room?
Originally published at RealClearPennsylvania
Watch Gov. Josh Shapiro closely during his annual budget address on Tuesday. The governor will lay out his vision for the upcoming year – undoubtedly full of big ideas and pretentious rhetoric.
Yet, what will be most interesting is whether Shapiro addresses the elephant in the room: Pennsylvania’s $3.6 billion structural deficit.
This deficit isn’t new; the governor has ignored and expanded it. During Shapiro’s last budget address, he didn’t even mention the word “deficit.” Instead, he proposed a 7.1% increase in General Fund spending – a level well above the Taxpayer Protection Act (TPA) index that ties growth in state spending to the rates of inflation and population growth. For the four of the past five years, state spending grew faster than the TPA index.
Read more at RealClearPennsylvania