00:00 - The following program

00:02 - is sponsored in part by

00:03 - customer's bank.

00:13 - We're joined today by sen Jay costa Pennsylvania senate minority leader

00:17 - the state budget is officially past it's June

00:19 - thirtieth due date what is causing the delay.

00:23 - I just think we haven't been able to come to a consensus primarily on

00:26 - revenue generating.

00:28 - Ways in which we're gonna generate revenue primarily but also disbursements as well

00:32 - and they tie to one another i think that that's probably the major issue but.

00:36 - A

00:37 - little bit of progress has been made since we

00:38 - recessed when senate Republicans sent us home

00:41 - but progress has been made not much and we're far from being done but we're going to

00:45 - continue working at it would last several days and that's upcoming days

00:48 - now the governor proposed a

00:50 - fifty three million dollar budget

00:52 - how close are

00:54 - your two caucuses to an agreed amount

00:57 - is it the same or different than the governor's budget proposal.

01:00 - It's different than the governor's budget proposal i mean this is the process of

01:04 - compromising what we're working on

01:06 - to do

01:07 - and i know that

01:08 - our colleagues in the senate republican caucus and half republican caucus

01:11 - have a

01:12 - difference of opinion with regard to the governor spent so we're working through that

01:16 - i will

01:17 - try to meet as best we can in the middle somewhere

01:19 - possible if not a little bit better her and

01:21 - go from there

01:22 - Pennsylvania's independent fiscal office

01:25 - reports that the state is facing a

01:27 - six point seven billion dollar structural deficit

01:29 - how does your caucus feel about potentially taking money

01:32 - from the rainy day fund to balance out this deficit.

01:35 - So we don't need to balance out the full six million dollars right now i think we

01:40 - have to take steps to be able as i

01:42 - think we can do to be able to offset.

01:45 - That i do think there are revenue enhancements

01:47 - that we can look to which we've been advocating for

01:50 - and that we think can be part of that combined reporting

01:53 - and

01:54 - recreational cannabis

01:55 - looking at our skill games and taking the difference between skill games at least in

01:59 - your one for skill games a significant amount of money could come from there

02:02 - and a small portion from the rainy day fund maybe it's just the interest part of that

02:06 - that we take off the rent used on that rainy day fund

02:09 - but these are all items that are being discussed as

02:11 - we speak and we need to continue talking about that

02:13 - there's no

02:14 - one thing that we've landed on this point that's going to be in or out

02:17 - at this moment in time

02:19 - let's talk more about the sco games you mentioned

02:21 - of those being potential revenue generators

02:23 - and the state's supreme court just ruled that skill games are the same as slot

02:27 - machines do you predict that this will have any impact on the budget at all.

02:32 - We're hopeful that this will be one of the final pieces that comes together certainly

02:35 - for the revenue that would generate.

02:37 - This in this upcoming year's budget for twenty six twenty seven

02:41 - but also we're hoping that we can use a portion of those revenues

02:44 - that revenue stream

02:46 - for transit and transportation roads and Bridges.

02:49 - Going forward beginning at twenty twenty seven twenty eight budget so

02:52 - that whatever the difference between what we allocate to those two areas

02:56 - we'll go into the general fund again to offset

02:58 - the the

02:59 - what we need to be able to close out that year's budget

03:02 - so that's kind of where things are at right now we're

03:04 - hopeful that we get that done but if it doesn't.

03:07 - Then we have to take a different view of what the budget is going to look like and

03:10 - how to monitor the amount of money will be spent

03:12 - another proposal in the governor's

03:14 - initial budget proposal was to increase the minimum wage and

03:17 - on June thirtieth democrats recognize the twentieth

03:20 - anniversary of the last minimum wage increase in Pennsylvania

03:23 - why has the increase been so difficult to accomplish.

03:27 - Yeah that's a great question i can understand for the life of me why we cannot get

03:31 - our republican colleagues in Harrisburg to support

03:34 - a minimum wage increase

03:36 - as as i i think everyone knows Pennsylvania's rate is seven twenty five it's one of

03:40 - the lowest in the northeast region

03:41 - when you look around the state of new York is well

03:44 - over fifteen dollars Ohio Maryland new Jersey Delaware

03:48 - and even west Virginia at eight seventy five.

03:51 - It's unconscionable that we've not been able to do this and i think the problem is

03:55 - that.

03:57 - Folks who don't want to support a minimum wage increase

04:00 - an appropriate rate

04:01 - am i if you don't value the worked at the folks that

04:04 - are being paid not just a seven twenty five an hour

04:06 - it's the nine dollar an hour person it's a ten dollar not person

04:10 - those are the folks that you know are day in and day out we all encounter

04:13 - and in my view

04:14 - what

04:15 - and i said this at the event we had.

04:18 - In my view the.

04:19 - Republicans in Harrisburg

04:21 - when they look to the coffee shop barista

04:23 - or when they look at the health care worker making nine dollars an hour.

04:27 - Or whoever the working at seven twenty five an hour

04:30 - or they don't value the work that they do enough to be able to say

04:34 - you know you deserve

04:35 - a little bit better but living wage

04:36 - not complete living wait

04:38 - but you also deserve a pathway to get too close to a living wage

04:41 - and that's what we've been proposing and that's

04:43 - what house democrats to pass on multiple occasions

04:46 - a minimum wage increase that would take us from seven twenty five

04:50 - and over overseers of years three or four years getting us to fifteen dollars an hour

04:55 - that's what we should be doing incrementally increasing it over the course of years

04:59 - to tell the folks who are working in those wages

05:01 - at those wages that we value what they do we appreciate who they are

05:04 - and we want them to be lift them up as well cause when you lift up to seven twenty

05:08 - five to lift everybody up as well

05:10 - and that's what our goal is i can't speak as to why there have been concerns that.

05:14 - Impact small business and impacts nonprofits alike

05:18 - but study after study has.

05:20 - Refuted that by stating that

05:22 - what you do have when you increase minimum wage

05:24 - and it's not expedient experiencing the states around us by the way that

05:28 - that argument doesn't fly in the states that increased by the way

05:31 - what you find is that you've got better but at work productivity

05:34 - you have longed long term sustained workers with you

05:38 - you don't have to worry about retraining someone because somebody's moving to the

05:40 - next job because it pays fifty cents or seventy five cents an hour more

05:44 - you have that stability which is

05:46 - essential so

05:47 - i

05:48 - study after study shows that and that's that's why it's important to us and

05:52 - it's just bought beyond belief that we can't move in that direction

05:55 - in my view.

05:56 - One does a delayed budget start to end pack stakeholders.

06:00 - You know i think it starts impact as we get into

06:03 - and hopefully and i don't think we're going to get there

06:05 - but later this month i think it'll start to impact folks

06:08 - if we were not going to have a prolonged budget

06:10 - impasse like we had last year

06:12 - i'm pretty confident of that

06:14 - and i think the conversations are going in the right direction

06:18 - but it's just now matter of you know

06:20 - parties can coming to an agreement locking down

06:22 - revenue streams and now Kate how we're going to spend the money

06:26 - and enriching compromise on those issues and it's not easy to do and so

06:30 - we both have our self philosophical beliefs where things need to be

06:34 - and we're going to stick to them and and go from

06:35 - there but also know that we've got to compromise

06:37 - so they can start her hurting non-profits

06:40 - as we go get into

06:41 - if we get

06:42 - to late July they have to start making some tough decisions about how they're going

06:45 - to manage the next month's payment

06:47 - school districts not quite the same

06:49 - and i think those are some of the two major areas

06:51 - that are impacted through these

06:52 - but these nonprofit and these healthcare providers and human service providers it's

06:56 - when we get to the middle to late end of

06:58 - July when things start to get dicey for them.

07:01 - How frequently are leaders meeting to discuss these negotiations

07:05 - i would say to you.

07:07 - While

07:08 - Democratic leaders said meet frequently

07:10 - and

07:11 - i mean

07:11 - you

07:11 - saw when we just met on Tuesday we met Monday with the governor a couple of times

07:17 - and

07:17 - we've not had the five party meetings which i think

07:20 - should be assess actual

07:21 - but that doesn't mean that we're not

07:23 - working through our senior staff people.

07:26 - Senior staff people

07:27 - i have been at the table frequently working through things along with the

07:32 - administration at different agency leaders

07:34 - and i'm so we're working through that stuff

07:36 - that stuff is happening on a continual basis

07:39 - where exchange we now are exchanging doc elements ended up in the case for awhile.

07:44 - So concepts and ideas

07:45 - are being floated back and forth

07:47 - and analyzed and then responded to and

07:50 - that's been taking place since Tuesday.

07:53 - Lastly you mentioned working with the governor on some of these negotiations can you

07:57 - explain what the chaparral administration's role in budget negotiations are.

08:02 - Well the governor has to sign a budget

08:04 - so there there folks and the budget office secretary.

08:08 - Is interesting indirectly involved as well as his legislative secretary and we've

08:11 - been talk with them frequently daily multiple times a day

08:15 - working through as i mentioned these concepts and the governors i hate they represent

08:19 - the governor in these conversations

08:21 - and the governor has weighed in

08:23 - personally to be a part of that discussion as well and

08:26 - articulating what

08:27 - he values his things that are important to him

08:30 - he's he'll certainly encouraged he wants to get things done

08:33 - i believe he's disappointed we didn't get it done by June thirtieth

08:36 - but

08:37 - we are working towards trying to get it done as soon as possible

08:40 - it remains to be seen

08:41 - how quickly is going to come together

08:43 - once

08:44 - we have an agreement and the concept

08:46 - along with the governor and he'll express his views on what we sorta come up with

08:51 - that move forward.

08:52 - Sen Jay costa Pennsylvania senate minority leader thank you for your time.

08:57 - Thanks

08:57 - thanks for having me

08:58 - have a good holiday.

09:02 - Hmm

09:05 - hmm.

09:15 - Hmm.