Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) said he would use a line-item veto on a school voucher program he helped draft after pushback from Democrats in the Pennsylvania legislature.
In trying to pass his first budget as governor, Shapiro assisted in drafting a provision that satisfied Republicans — a $100 million school voucher program. After the legislation passed in the state Senate, Pennsylvania House Democrats informed the governor that they would not pass the budget with the provision. Shapiro gave in to the pressure and announced Wednesday that he would veto the provision in order to pass the budget.
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"We stand at an impasse largely over one provision of this budget, PASS Scholarships, a proposal I support that has been passed by the Senate but one that Leader Bradford has made clear does not have the support of the House, where it was voted down in committee on Friday," Shapiro said in a statement released Wednesday.
“Over the weekend, Leader Bradford requested a legal memo from the Office of General Counsel, which confirmed that without enabling legislation setting up this program, my Administration legally cannot implement it," he continued. "Knowing that the two chambers will not reach consensus at this time to enact PASS, and unwilling to hold up our entire budget process over this issue, I will line-item veto the full $100 million appropriation and it will not be part of this budget bill."
While expressing his disappointment, Shapiro said state Democratic Rep. Matthew Bradford had given his word that he will "carefully examine and consider additional education options including PASS, Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC), and Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) as we work to address our public education needs in light of the Commonwealth Court’s recent education ruling."
The move is certain to produce outrage from Republicans, who only agreed to approve Shapiro's other spending in education if the voucher program was included. The school voucher program has long been a priority for Republicans in the state.
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“This budget that we put together was put together with the governor as an agreement, as a whole package,” state Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, a Republican, said last week, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “If they pull out our priorities ... you’re going to see a very slimmed-down, scaled-back budget because there were things in this budget that we really didn’t want to do.”
Democrats opposed the voucher program on the grounds that it could take funds away from public schools. Democrats draw substantial support from teachers unions, which heavily oppose the vouchers.