Feb. 03, 2026
HARRISBURG – Rep. Charity Grimm Krupa (R-Fayette) issued this statement following the governor’s budget address today:
“As Pennsylvania approaches America’s 250th anniversary, we would do well to remember who we are and what was entrusted to us.
“This Commonwealth is the Keystone State, the place where a nation was born on the belief that government must live within its means, respect the rule of law, and answer to the people who pay the bills.
“Gov. Josh Shapiro’s $53.26 billion budget proposal abandons that inheritance.
“The governor calls this a plan. In truth, it is a gamble at best – one that increases spending by more than $2.7 billion in a single year while resting on revenues that do not exist, have not been authorized, or may be unlawful, including taxes on skill games and recreational marijuana.
“This is fantasy budgeting with very real consequences for taxpayers.
“Our founders did not pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honor so future generations could fund government on speculation and political convenience. They warned against debt, excess and the quiet erosion of liberty that follows fiscal recklessness.
“Yet under this proposal, Pennsylvania’s hard-won financial defenses are dismantled.
“When Gov. Shapiro took office, the Commonwealth held more than $13 billion in surplus and Rainy Day reserves, a shield against recession, crisis and uncertainty. If this budget were enacted as written, the surplus would be erased entirely and the Rainy Day Fund cut by more than half by the end of the 2026–27 budget cycle.
“Once the surplus is gone, working families are the ones left holding the bill.
“The Rainy Day Fund was never meant to finance ambition or mask structural imbalance. It exists for storms, not for fair-weather excess. To drain it now, as federal aid disappears and economic warning signs mount, is not bold leadership. It is a violation of trust.
“Equally troubling is the governor’s reliance on recreational marijuana as a fiscal crutch. States that have followed this path have learned a hard lesson: The promised revenues are quickly consumed by higher emergency room visits, impaired driving, workplace accidents, and increased strain on law enforcement and social services. The social costs are real, enduring and borne not by politicians, but by families and communities.
“Pennsylvanians were not promised a government that grows without restraint and sends the bill to the next generation. They were promised a republic governed by prudence, accountability and respect for those who earn a living by the sweat of their brow.
“This proposal is only the opening salvo. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I will meet it with the same spirit that built this Commonwealth: by being skeptical of power, faithful to the law and resolved to protect the people’s purse.
“As America marks 250 years of independence, Pennsylvania must once again be the keystone, not the weak link.”
Representative Charity Grimm Krupa
51st District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Contact: 724-438-6100
RepGrimmKrupa.com / Facebook.com/RepGrimmKrupa