News & Brews June 25, 2025
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Senate committee passes zero-based budgeting
Yesterday, the Pa. Senate Finance Committee advanced legislation, sponsored by Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (York County) that would “overhaul Pennsylvania’s budgeting process” by instituting “zero-based budgeting (ZBB), a process that requires state agencies to justify every dollar they spend rather than using the previous year’s funding as a baseline.” Under the legislation, “20% of state programs would undergo a full ZBB review each year, completing the cycle in five years. Agencies would be required to provide detailed breakdowns of program costs, legal justifications, and measurable outcomes.” As Gov. Shapiro and Democrat lawmakers seek to throw more and more taxpayer dollars at programs with little accountability, ZBB is a proposal whose time is overdue!
NY Dems pick a socialist
Where is the Democrat party heading? That’s the questions after yesterday’s New York City mayoral primary, in which voters picked socialist state Rep. Zohran Mamdani over former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Granted, Cuomo has had his issues (to say the least), but even the uber liberal New York Times had urged voters not to vote for Mamdani. Among his more concerning views, as the Free Press explains, “He has refused to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, just as he has refused to condemn the phrase globalize the intifada.” We’ve seen Democrat primary voters pick far-left progressives before (including in Pennsylvania), and yesterday’s NYC primary once again raises the question of where the party is heading. (The WSJ had a bit more on this, too.)
Poll: Fetterman more popular with Rs than Ds
A new poll from Susquehanna Polling & Research reveals that 45% of Pennsylvania Republicans approve of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, while 40% of Democrats do. His overall approval rating, meanwhile, is 41%, while 37% disapprove. “It’s hard to say how he fares in a reelection contest, which is still a few years away,” says Susquehanna President James Lee, “but based on this latest poll his real vulnerability seems to be in a Democratic primary.”
Where does Shapiro stand on $$ for stadiums?
Looks like the Associated Press printed some fake news. (Spoiler alert: We are not shocked). The AP ran a story reporting that Gov. Shapiro said there would be no state funding for new football stadiums. But then, the AP changed the story to read that “Gov. Josh Shapiro declined to get into specifics on the potential for the state to provide funding for any new sports arena.” What’s the deal? Turns out it was super sloppy reporting by the AP, which, incidentally, provides news stories to thousands of other media outlets. In other words, don’t believe everything you read.
Lawmaker throws ‘Hail Mary’ on Crozer Chester
The Delaware Valley Journal reports that Republican state Rep. Craig Williams (Delaware & Chester counties) “is throwing a Hail Mary pass with a bill to provide funding to entice a buyer for the mothballed Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland.” The bill would “use $200 million in unspent funds from last year’s budget to create a Hospital Acquisition Assistance Fund to be overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). …While the funds would be available for other hospitals, Williams made it clear his goal is to get Crozer open once again.”