(The Center Square) – As Gov. Josh Shapiro makes his rounds across the commonwealth promoting the $50.8 billion state budget he signed into law earlier this month, his Republican challenger is voicing her opposition.
“Too much money,” State Treasurer Stacy Garrity said in a response to a question from The Center Square on Monday.
Garrity, who was elected to a second term as the state’s Treasurer in 2024, said there’s still a structural deficit of $4.8 to $5 billion a year.
Citing the tax burden Pennsylvanians face, Garrity believes the state can’t afford it.
“We expect families to spend within their means, and our state should be doing the same thing,” Garrity said.
Her remarks in Bucks County to The Center Square were made 15 days after Shapiro signed the 2026-27 state budget into law. While that budget was the fifth in a row signed past the constitution-mandated deadline, it was also the fourth signed in bipartisan fashion since Shapiro took office.
“From day one, my Administration has been laser-focused on delivering results for the people of Pennsylvania — and what we’re doing is working,” Shapiro said. “In a divided legislature, we’ve proven time and again that Democrats and Republicans can come together to get stuff done for the good people of Pennsylvania — cutting taxes, investing in education and workforce development, and keeping the economy growing.”
“By listening to Pennsylvanians and working together, we’re solving problems and building on the last three years of real progress,” he continued.
According to the governor’s office, the budget includes more resources for schools and students, expanded workforce development initiatives, nearly 400 more state troopers, support for start-ups, expanded mental health services, and more support for children and families.
The latest budget cruised through both chambers.
In the Senate, the main budget bill passed by a vote of 44-6. The “no” votes in the upper chamber were from GOP state Sens. Jarrett Coleman, Scott Hutchinson, Dawn Keefer, and Doug Mastriano, plus Democratic state Sens. Katie Muth and Nikil Saval.
The final vote in the state House was 167-35, with all of the negative votes coming from Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, a Republican, who voted in support of the budget proposal, described it as an “imperfectly good plan that will keep Pennsylvania on a promising path for the future.”
Senate Minority Appropriations Chair Vincent Hughes, a Democrat representing parts of Philadelphia, called it a “strong budget that will improve our schools, lift up local economies, and help address Pennsylvania’s affordability crisis.”
House Minority Leader Jesse Topper, a Republican representing the state House’s 78th District that spans parts of Bedford and Fulton counties, said that the budget approved by the General Assembly continued their “recent history of scouring every corner of state government for existing taxpayer dollars to avoid tax increases, cuts to government services or tapping into the Commonwealth’s Rainy Day fund.”
“I am also glad to see important investments in education where we are combatting the ongoing issue of growing waitlists at career and technical centers, expanding the successful GROW PA program to ensure Pennsylvania’s graduates have incentive to stay here, and ensuring our largest state-related universities receive funding based upon meeting new performance metrics and accountability provisions,” Topper said.
Improvements that prioritize rural Pennsylvania were also included in the budget, according to Topper, although he did warn that work “remains on reversing troubling fiscal trends in Pennsylvania to avoid tough budgetary decisions in the future.”
While a majority of Republicans voted in support of the latest budget proposal, state Rep. Russ Diamond, who was one of the 35 “no” votes, described the latest approved spending plan as “fiscally irresponsible” and argued “it spends way more than the numbers that are being advertised… a couple of accounting tricks pushed $2.6 billion off the books.”
The final spend number from Shapiro is less than what he originally proposed during his budget address in February, when he wanted to spend $53.2 billion for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
That original proposal drew significant backlash from Republicans, including Garrity, who called it “unsustainable, irresponsible, and reckless.”
Still, Garrity said the agreed upon $50.8 billion budget is “too high.”
Garrity referenced her background from the private sector when discussing how she thinks the governor should address the state budget.
“When you’re a career politician, you think that you just throw money at issues and it’s going to fix itself,” Garrity said.
Education, Garrity said, was the “perfect example.”
Although state funding for public education has increased more than $1 billion since Shapiro took office, she said, national achievement rankings are still lagging behind.
“So obviously, throwing money isn’t working,” she added.
Total spending for the state budget has increased every year since Shapiro took office.
Garrity also takes issue with that.
“He is very proud of that spending,” Garrity said. “Of course, me being the treasurer and the fiscal watchdog for the state, every dollar is a dollar that somebody earned, and so we should treat it like it’s precious.”
When explaining his yes vote, Pittman pointed to the Senate Republican Caucus keeping the state’s $7.7 billion Rainy Day Fund “fully intact,” which was a priority for his side of the aisle.
“Through tremendous hard work we identified and pulled $1.5 billion out of the couch cushions of bureaucracy to balance this budget,” Pittman said. “The ultimate long-term solutions to our budgetary challenges are economic opportunity and growth, and I am proud that the agreement includes numerous policies to support families, invest in our local communities, and foster needed growth.”
Garrity also objected to Shapiro’s claim that he’s signed balanced budgets every single year.
“We’ve had a structural deficit ever since I’ve been the treasurer,” she said. “But they play a little game, take money from the surplus, plug your budget hole, and call it a balanced budget.”
For the last few years, Republicans have pointed repeatedly to figures showing the state spends $3 billion to $6 billion more than it brings in in revenue. During negotiations earlier this month, leaders told of several ways they got past that fact, including the squeezing of $4.5 billion over two years of unspent or “found” money from various government accounts.
Another was delaying various payments by a few months – a tactic that would take them off the books for 2026-27 and put them in a different fiscal year. And, negotiators were helped by the fact that revenue for 2025-26 came in more than $1 billion above estimates.
Ford Turner contributed to this report.
