“The state budget approved yesterday by the Pennsylvania General Assembly and signed by Governor Shapiro delivers meaningful progress for Philadelphia, including more than $157 million in additional funds for the School District of Philadelphia to support our children—our most precious resource.

I want to thank Governor Josh Shapiro, our Philadelphia delegation in Harrisburg, and legislative leaders in both parties for working together to reach a budget agreement. My special thanks to Speaker Joanna McClinton, House Appropriations Chairman Jordan Harris, Senate Democratic Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes, House Majority Leader Matt Bradford, and our Philadelphia delegation leaders, Rep. Morgan Cephas and Sen. Nikil Saval, for their unwavering support for Philadelphia. We are grateful for their hard work for the City.

Our Administration will move quickly to make sure Philadelphia receives every last dollar available for our schools, infrastructure, health, workforce, and economic-development priorities. At the same time, our work is not finished. Philadelphia and the entire region still needs a permanent, long-term solution for public transit. A sustainable funding solution for SEPTA—a critical economic driver for our city and region—and statewide transit systems remains unfinished business. We will continue working with Gov. Shapiro and leaders on both sides of the aisle to deliver those results for the people of Philadelphia.

My thanks also to Senator Joe Picozzi, Senate President Kim Ward, Majority Leader Joe Pittman, and House Republican Leader Jesse Topper for their work in this budget process.

This budget produces real and measurable gains for Philadelphia.

• Education funding. More than $157 million in additional education funding overall will support Philadelphia students and educators.  It marks the third consecutive year of new adequacy funding in compliance with the Commonwealth court’s decision that the state’s prior funding method was unconstitutional—further closing Philadelphia’s $1.2 billion adequacy gap and adding $137 million in new funding this year. The adequacy funding increase, coupled with Philadelphia’s $50.4 million local commitment in our FY27 city budget, will enable the School District to save and restore 340 school-based positions. The state budget also makes new investments in key city education priorities—adding $10 million to the student-teacher stipend program and increasing CTE funding by $14 million.

• We applaud the Governor and General Assembly for their continued partnership that will enable Philadelphia to keep making progress with our schoolchildren, including rising student attendance and dropout reduction.

• School Facilities Funding. This budget helps with funding for school infrastructure improvements. Philadelphia will not receive an automatic share of this competitive funding, but the age and condition of the School District’s buildings mean that millions of dollars in grants should be available for repairing and rebuilding our schools. We’re grateful for the support from our state partners on this pressing issue. For context, the School District recently approved a long-awaited school facilities plan that will cost $3 billion.

• Closing Local Sales Tax Loophole. Closing a loophole involving Philadelphia’s additional 2% local sales and use tax. This change requires out-of-city and online sellers who already have to collect Pennsylvania’s 6% state sales tax on sales delivered into Philadelphia to also now collect Philadelphia’s added 2%. This will improve compliance, add local, recurring revenues (an estimated $1.5 million per year), and create a more level playing field for Philadelphia businesses that already collect the full 8% combined sales tax.

• Funding to Prevent Homelessness. The budget includes $10 million to help support Philadelphia’s efforts to end street homelessness—a critical administration priority. We genuinely appreciate our state partners’ support as our city confronts seemingly intractable problems such as homelessness and other complex social problems and seeks to implement tangible solutions that work.

• Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver Investment. The budget invests $1.9 million in Philadelphia’s implementation of Pennsylvania’s Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration, Keystones of Health, which supports innovative Medicaid approaches addressing health-related social needs and transitions away from institutional settings.

• Highway and Bridge Infrastructure Improvements. The budget includes $24.7 million for highway and bridge maintenance projects across Philadelphia.

• Other Investments in Philadelphia. There are many more investments in Philadelphia in this state budget. For example, there is also $500,000 for Temple University for a degree completion program in healthcare.

The Parker administration prides itself on intergovernmental collaboration; it’s how we address critical public issues and make progress for Philadelphia. This state budget helps us address many urgent issues impacting our city and our residents, and we’re grateful to the Governor and all our delegation leaders for all of their collaboration and support.”