(The Center Square) – As many Republican lawmakers congratulate themselves for successfully passing the budget without dipping into the state’s so-called Rainy Day Fund, Rep. Russ Diamond is one of 35 dissenting voters in the House who believe that the numbers were merely manipulated to look responsible.
The budget, signed on Sunday 12 days after the deadline, allots $50.84 billion for the 2026-2027 fiscal year that started on July 1. Human services and education were its two largest recipients, taking $19.9 billion and $19.4 billion in funds respectively.
In the Republican-controlled Senate, the budget passed 44-6 and has been marketed as a Republican victory for cutting a billion from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s initial proposal back in February.
One source of funds tapped by budget negotiators was a pile of unspent money in various accounts that had been allocated in previous budgets.
“Through tremendous hard work we identified and pulled $1.5 billion out of the couch cushions of bureaucracy to balance this budget,” said Republican Sen. Joe Pittman from Indiana County, the majority leader in the chamber.
The above-mentioned ‘couch cushions of bureaucracy,’ contain what some Republican senators are calling overspending by the Department of Human Services, but Diamond believes that cutting the department’s funds is not a silver bullet solution and will come with consequences.
“It spends way more than the numbers that are being advertised,” said Diamond. “A couple of accounting tricks pushed $2.6 billion off the books.”
One of these ‘tricks’ described by Diamond is delaying the payment of $1.3 billion to Medicaid providers otherwise known as a ‘Medicaid roll’. While keeping the books balanced for now, providers will eventually have to be paid back along with interest, Diamond said
His biggest bone to pick with the budget and those who laud it ‘fiscally responsible’, however, is the other means used to keep the Rainy Day Fund safe.
“The particular one that’s very offensive to me was raiding the local share assessment,” said Diamond, “That’s not a couch cushion.”
Local Share Assessments, or LSA, are used to fund public interest projects and property tax relief. So far, 50% of its funding, which comes from gambling revenue, has been committed to help pay for the pensions of retired educators and state employees.
Diamond argues that taking away LSA funds won’t change the fact that municipal projects will still need to occur. For Diamond, the budget’s reallocation of this gaming revenue will lead to a greater burden on Pennsylvania homeowners. Homeowners who were promised in 2004 that the legalization of gaming in the state would provide them with a $1 billion in property tax relief by former Gov. Ed Rendell.
Diamond sees Harrisburg’s financial decisions heading only two ways: an inevitable drainage of the Rainy Day Fund or a significant tax increase.
“I’m a Republican, and the reason I’m a Republican is because I believe government should do fewer things and spend less money, ” said Diamond. “So, let’s clean up special funds, but let’s clean them up on the front end and not on the back end when we just need money to spend on other things.”
For those who believe foraging about the recliner has fixed the issue, Diamond begs to differ, citing General Assembly current strategy as just a superficial remedy to a much larger issue of ill management and overspending.
“If we have that many couch cushions, we ought to clean up our living room.” Diamond said.
