Conservative Analysis of the 2020 Pennsylvania Budget and the Voting Machine Upgrade Funding

The Republican-majority General Assembly approved a $34 billion budget for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that was signed into law by Governor Tom Wolfe, a liberal Democrat, for the fiscal year 2020 that began this month.

The spending increased 6% over last year, most significantly because of increases for education.  Because the budget includes a surplus, $300 million was allocated to the rainy day fund, although the Commonwealth’s debt increased to $1.3 billion.  

There was no tax increase, despite Wolf’s perennial plea for additional taxes on the natural gas industry.  The Legislature also rejected the Governor’s plan to raise the minimum wage.  However there was no pension reform or privatization of alcohol that could have saved the state billions of dollars and the General Assembly also rejected Wolf’s plan to impose a fee on municipalities that rely on State Police for free instead of funding their own police.

The budget does not appropriate funds for upgrading voting machines to those that are less vulnerable to hacking by allowing for a paper backup, as recommended by federal security agencies, after the Russian Federation the hacked election offices of all fifty States in 2016 and also some Counties.  The Governor was instead authorized by the budget to float $90 million, in addition to $14.5 million in federal money, to assist Pennsylvania’s Counties, which are responsible for conducting elections.  The Commonwealth has taken other cybersecurity measures.