State Representative Doyle Heffley has commented on the passage of the 2025-26 Pennsylvania state budget, which ended a delay of more than 130 days. Heffley criticized the time taken to finalize the budget, attributing the delay to actions by the governor and House Democrats.
“It’s time this budget is done, period. The delays caused by the governor and House Democrats were unacceptable,” Heffley stated.
Heffley acknowledged that while the new budget is not perfect, it provides essential funding for schools, counties, and human service providers. He outlined several points he considers important in the agreement:
“We can unleash Pennsylvania energy because the budget calls for us to exit the job-killing, overly burdensome Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). It also prevents a $2.5 billion energy tax, lowering utility costs and boosting job growth.
We are ensuring benefit integrity to make sure taxpayer dollars go to individuals who truly need them. The measures include creating a more accountable and secure process to reduce failures in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), such as transitioning to chip-enabled benefit cards and reviewing how benefits are distributed.
We are investing in our schools to ensure all students have access to a high-quality education through expanded school choice, scholarships for students in underperforming schools and funding for the SHINE After School program.
We are making progress on permitting reform, including streamlined processes that support both environmental protection and economic development, while keeping zoning and planning decisions under local control.”
Heffley also expressed concern about overall spending levels but indicated that this was likely the best outcome possible at this time.
“I am concerned with the overall spending in the budget, but this is the best deal we were going to get for now,” he said.
