“Over the past two years, Republicans and Democrats have worked together to make progress for the people of Pennsylvania.
“After decades of failure, we passed pension reform that will put Pennsylvania on the path to a sustainable fiscal future, save taxpayers billions, and reduce payments to Wall Street fund managers. This budget fully funds our pension obligations. We passed the most significant liquor reform since prohibition. We set our differences aside, and made real changes for customers and taxpayers.
“After years of devastating education cuts, we have restored more than $800 million in education funding. I am going to keep fighting to fix our schools, but this budget represents one of the most significant investments in schools in our lifetime. And we passed a fair funding formula, taking Pennsylvania off a shameful list of states without a way to fairly fund their schools. This budget keeps investing in schools.
“Together, we’ve fought the heroin and opioid crisis that continues to plague our communities. We have developed treatment options and provided lifesaving medicine, but we know the crisis has not abated so we’re continuing to fight by making drug courts available to low level offenders so those who are struggling can get treatment.
“Today, we finalized a general appropriations bill. It’s a start, and it’s not everything I wanted or everything Republicans wanted, but unlike D.C., we can compromise and get things done just like when we passed bipartisan pension reform and bipartisan liquor reform.
“This budget includes much of the savings, efficiencies, and cuts I proposed in February in my budget address. But we avoided deep, indiscriminate cuts that would have endangered our ability to deliver services to the people of Pennsylvania.
