Shapiro’s $51.4B Opening Bid Spends Big on Pennsylvania’s ‘Rise’

(The Center Square) – It's a new year, and with it comes a time-honored tradition in Pennsylvania: the unveiling of the governor's spending proposal. On Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro proffered the biggest one yet: $51.4 billion that critics say spends $3 billion more than what the state can afford. For the administration and its allies, however, it's a mere down payment on the state's education adequacy gap, its crumbling mass transit system and ballooning health care needs for a growing senior population.