While making several important investments that will benefit Pennsylvanians at all stages of their lives, with this budget, the legislature has failed to act on some of the most urgent problems facing communities across the Commonwealth, including the high costs of energy, the critical need for transit funding, and the ongoing housing crisis.
HARRISBURG, PA − July 13, 2026 − Today, following the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s passage of the 2026–2027 state budget during a special session that spanned the weekend, State Senator Nikil Saval (D–Philadelphia) issued the following statement:
“In communities across the country and throughout our Commonwealth, people have been loud, clear, and uncompromising in their demands for their government to prioritize their needs over the profits of the billionaires, wealthy CEOs, and big corporations that exploit our labor and our lands. This year’s budget makes strides to support Pennsylvanians at all moments of their lives—increased money to retain childcare workers, more funding for education and investments in teachers and staff, money back in the pockets of Pennsylvanians working hard to make ends meet, and additional funding for nursing homes. This budget also saw a crucial policy win that I have championed alongside Senator Hughes for years: the creation of a public database to help track and preserve Pennsylvania’s affordable housing.
“But to truly meet this moment of incredible financial hardship, Pennsylvanians need their representatives to be just as loud, clear, and uncompromising as they are.
“The General Assembly has deferred action to combat high energy costs. Instead of regulating the development of data centers, our government continues recklessly to incentivize it—their proliferation across the Commonwealth emerging as a key obstacle to our transition away from a fossil fuel economy.
“The General Assembly has deferred action to invest fully in public transit. Despite the continued activation and involvement of tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians in urban, suburban, and rural counties alike calling for full, permanent funding for public transit, we will once again face this issue in 2027, when our timeline has become much more urgent.
“The General Assembly has deferred action to address a housing crisis that worsens each year. Nearly one in three Pennsylvania households is cost burdened, and our Commonwealth has a deficit of nearly 100,000 homes. With the passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act into law, the federal government has succeeded in advancing a nationwide pilot program for Whole-Home Repairs; our General Assembly has, again, failed to reinvest in its own hallmark initiative.
“This budget could have moved the needle on some of the most pressing issues of our times; instead, this is a budget of missed opportunity. We will not let this opportunity pass us again. In the coming year, we will move to tax billionaires and wealthy corporations. We will fully and permanently fund transit agencies across the Commonwealth. We will identify and advance new streams of revenue capable of building the flourishing, resourced communities that our people need and deserve.”
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Pennsylvania State Senator Nikil Saval is a father, husband, writer, and organizer representing Pennsylvania’s First Senatorial District, which runs through the heart of Philadelphia. Saval serves as Democratic Chair of the Senate’s Urban Affairs & Housing Committee and leads the Senate’s Philadelphia Delegation. He’s dedicated to a Pennsylvania that works for everyone.