HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Republican-led Pennsylvania Senate sent a $47.9 billion spending plan to the state House on Tuesday, but the proposal was dead on arrival and deemed "unserious" in the Democratic-controlled chamber, marking the latest chapter of the nearly four-month-long budget impasse in the state's bitterly divided legislature.

The Senate GOP plan, which passed the chamber by a 27-23 vote along party lines, included a $300 million, or 0.6%, total increase over last year's budget that is intended to cover the state's debt service and pension obligations, in addition to cutting operational spending for the legislative body by 5%, said Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R- Indiana.

The Republican senators' spending plan amended a bill that passed with a narrow bipartisan majority in the House earlier this month to spend $50.25 billion for the 2025-26 fiscal year, allow for significant increases in public education spending and cover increased Medicaid expenses.

The House Democrats' $50.25 billion spending bill was a slight decrease from the $51.5 billion budget proposal Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro pitched in February. And it was an attempt by House Democrats at reaching a compromise — decreasing their proposed spending by 2.4% over Shapiro's initial pitch — after encouragement from Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, for legislative leaders to bring the usually closed-door budget negotiations into the public eye.

But the Senate GOP's counteroffer passed Tuesday included little compromise and little increase in spending. However, it is a budget that would fund Pennsylvania's needs rather than wants, several top GOP senators said during floor debate on the bill.

"All it takes is one day and one vote to end this 'Shapiro Shutdown,'" Pittman said in his floor remarks in support of the GOP budget bill.

Several GOP senators noted the state's fiscal outlook as the reason lawmakers cannot afford to spend much more over last year, as Pennsylvania is on track to bring in $46.4 billion during the 2025-26 fiscal year, which is significantly less than Shapiro and House Democrats want to spend.

Pennsylvania is sitting on approximately $10 billion in reserves, from its leftover balance from the 2024-25 fiscal year and its hefty Rainy Day Fund. Democrats want to tap into those reserves and reinvest them in the state, while Republicans believe it is critical to protect those funds to maintain the state's bond rating or cut taxes as a way to reinvest those surpluses back into taxpayers' pockets.

Top Senate Republicans on Tuesday urged the state House to return to session and pass their $47.9 billion spending plan as the most responsible way to protect Pennsylvania taxpayers in future years. And some offered criticism of Shapiro, who has continued to host news conferences around Pennsylvania during the 113-day budget impasse, accusing the governor of failing to lead in Harrisburg on budget negotiations.

"If you want to have an honest conversation about how to get this budget done, a governor gallivanting across the state taking potshots at members of this caucus doesn't help," Pittman said.

What was not mentioned Tuesday among Senate Republicans was that $47.9 billion is the highest number that the most conservative members of the GOP Senate caucus have pledged to spend. Sen. Dawn Keefer, R-Cumberland, who led the House Freedom Caucus before her election to the state Senate last year, even went as far as to take a flamethrower to a replica of Shapiro's budget proposal in a social media video earlier this year while promising viewers through a rhyme that she would "hold the line at $47.9″ billion.

Senate Democrats firmly rejected the GOP plan as a farce that would not cover the state's obligations for this fiscal year or make critical increases to public education funding needed to improve Pennsylvania's school funding system. The top Senate Democratic leader, Sen. Jay Costa, D- Allegheny, tried several legislative maneuvers to try to get the Senate to vote on the House Democrats' bill instead of the GOP proposal, all of which failed.

"They thumbed their noses and they said, 'Go to heck,'" State Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, the minority chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said of his GOP colleagues' response to the House bill ahead of Tuesday's vote.

Shapiro, following a news conference in Allegheny County on Tuesday, voiced a similar sentiment when he told reporters the Senate's proposal was "a joke" and "not designed to be serious or get the job done." He again urged top GOP Senate leaders to begin meeting with top House Democrats to finalize a budget deal.

Budget talks have largely stalled since August, when the urgency for a deal seemed to dwindle after Shapiro and Democrats agreed to remove mass transit from the negotiation table, a top Democratic priority.

"I'm sorry transit didn't get funded. But just because your top priority didn't get addressed doesn't mean that our priorities are no longer relevant, and that's a hard truth," Pittman, who has been critical of Pennsylvania's mass transit systems and was a major roadblock in finalizing a deal, said Tuesday.

And, as evidenced by Tuesday's vote, leaders still do not agree on how much Pennsylvania should spend for the current fiscal year, now almost in its fifth month. Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation without any spending plan. North Carolina, which passed a six-month budget in early summer, returned to session this week to finish budget negotiations.

During the stalemate, schools, counties, and service providers have had to lay off staff or take out significant loans to stay afloat in the absence of any state payments. School districts have had to make up more than $3 billion in expected payments from the state during the monthslong impasse.

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