Better Budgeting: The Road to Fiscal Prosperity
As you prepare to gather with family and friends this Thanksgiving holiday, you’re certainly feeling the continued pain of filling up your shopping cart at the grocery store. Since 2019, your Thanksgiving turkey is now up 23% in cost. Dinner rolls are a whopping 66% more expensive. And for dessert? Your pumpkin pie now costs 18% more than in previous years. Pennsylvanians are thankful for one thing: legislators who understand that to get our fiscal house in order, we must cut back on reckless spending, grow the economy, and prioritize better budgeting.
Unfortunately, Governor Shapiro took unprecedented action this past week to reallocate your hard-earned tax dollars to bail out the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority, or SEPTA. If you live in the Philadelphia collar counties, you may be familiar with SEPTA. But if you don’t, well, your taxpayer dollars just went to bail out this regional transit authority through the use of federal funds.
What does this mean for you, the taxpayer? Governor Shapiro unilaterally diverted $153 million in PennDOT funding for seven road projects around the state, which is paid for by road users, to subsidize costs for SEPTA, or, specifically, transit users. Put simply: those who incur fees for using roadways and highways are now having their resources used to offset costs for those who are not using those highways.
This move by the Shapiro administration picks winners and losers—and you, the taxpayer, lost out in this deal. SEPTA already receives significant state and federal funding. In fact, SEPTA’s operating subsidy is already roughly $100 per Pennsylvanian, which means that those who do not reside in the Philadelphia metropolitan area are already funding a system they do not use. Most shockingly, the Shapiro administration initiated this move without proper legislative oversight. Without checks and balances, Governor Shapiro was able to divert $153 million in taxpayer funds to one singular authority.
If Pennsylvanians want to get serious about preventing 11th hour taxpayer-funded surprises like what we’ve seen from the Shapiro administration this week, state legislators in Harrisburg would be smart to adopt a comprehensive budget—one that includes all spending and revenue, as well as federal transfers, including for capital projects like highways. If enacted, the legislators who are elected to represent you would have more oversight over spending. The transparency of a complete budget would protect you, the taxpayer, and ensure that Governor Shapiro is unable to move money around to appease special interests without legislative support.
The inflation from excessive federal spending and debt is still driving up prices, and you are forced to make budget tradeoffs. Pennsylvanians are working to keep their household budgets in order, and so too should our state government. Learn more about ways in which Pennsylvania can rein in reckless spending and work to balance the budget by heading to americansforprosperity.org.
This is Emily Greene, State Director with Americans for Prosperity Pennsylvania.
