House and Senate Pass PA Budget

The main appropriations bill in a $32.7 billion spending package for Pennsylvania's approaching fiscal year is heading to Gov. Tom Wolf's desk, more than a week early.

The Senate voted 47-2 this afternoon, three days after first details of the no-new-taxes package were unveiled. The bill passed the House overwhelmingly Wednesday and Wolf supports it after negotiating it with Republican majority leaders.
The package boosts spending through the state's main operating account by $700 million, or 2 percent, largely for schools, social services, pensions and prisons.

School safety legislation is also advancing in Harrisburg to set up state-administered programs to distribute grants and take anonymous reports of dangerous activities or threats of violence in schools. The House unanimously approved the bill today, and sent it to the Senate as part of the  budget package that's starting the grant program with $60 million dollars. Lawmakers are exploring improvements to school safety spurred by February's Parkland, Florida school shooting.