Gillian Kratzer: Pa. surplus should help all residents

I guess it’s not important to keep $14 billion sitting in a bank account in Harrisburg after all.

In February, Gov. Josh Shapiro introduced a budget with strong investments in education, community development and public transit. It included proposals to address housing, gun violence, teacher recruitment, higher education costs, medical debt and dozens more important investments. It also helped hundreds of thousands of workers by raising the minimum wage.

For the first time in history, it put us on a path to fulfill our constitutional obligation to fund our public education system.

It left $11 billion in the bank.

And for the last three months, Republican legislators cried and whined and clutched their pearls.

How could the governor touch their money? How could the governor make these overdue investments using their big cash reserves?

Turns out it was all BS.

This week, Republicans rolled out a stale version of the same bad policies they’ve advocated for going back decades — handouts to the richest Pennsylvanians and, coincidently, their biggest donors.

They flip-flopped on using the surplus they said wasn’t available for us and tried to take it away from schools and neighborhoods and give most of it to the wealthiest among us.

And the legislation took billions of dollars out of the Rainy Day Fund.

It shouldn’t be a surprise.

When Republicans controlled all three branches of government a decade ago, they cut funding for public schools, they slashed investments in our main streets and they oversaw a government austerity program that spiked our unemployment rate to new highs and caused multiple credit downgrades.

At the end of this debacle, the Rainy Day Fund sat at $72,000. It was enough to keep the lights on at a few government buildings for a day or two.

Republicans never really cared about the Rainy Day Fund. They didn’t fill it when they had control. They used it to attack Shapiro. And now they’re taking money that should be used for investments in our schools, towns and people and giving it to the wealthiest Pennsylvanians and their donors, all while doing the same thing they’ve attacked Shapiro for.

For 30 years, Senate Republicans blocked help for Pennsylvania kids, workers and main streets under the guise of fiscal responsibility.

When they’ve been given the option to spend it on our progress, they lied and said we couldn’t use surplus funding.

Now, they want to take billions for kids and communities and give it to their wealthy donors.

It’s time to call them on their hypocrisy.

If nothing else, it’s now clear that there’s no reason we can’t pass Shapiro’s budget and use the billions sitting in a bank in Harrisburg on our people.

Let’s invest in our schools. Let’s fulfill our constitutional obligation. Let’s put money into our main streets and make sure that our small businesses have a foundation to succeed and thrive.

Let’s finally raise the minimum wage.

Let’s put our money to work, say no to the excuses, and pass a budget that helps regular Pennsylvanians, not billionaires, greedy corporate bosses and donors.

Gillian Kratzer is deputy director of Better PA.