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"It's a starting point."
That's what state Rep. Joe Hamm, R-Hepburn Township, said of Gov. Josh Shapiro's $51.5 billion budget proposal for 2025-26.
Hamm, whose district, covering Sullivan County and part of Lycoming County, encompasses a geographic size larger than Rhode Island, much of which is agricultural and rural, forests, small townships and villages, has had a few weeks since Shapiro's budget address before both houses of the General Assembly to digest it.
Following his initial publicized reaction to the proposed budget, he sat down with the Sun-Gazette news team and provided more specifics on where he believed he could be supportive and where he saw a need for further scrutiny.
"There is a lot of good in this budget, but the bad outweighs the good," he said. He added that although he is a Republican, his political persuasion is never why he decides on what to support or where he believes taxpayer dollars should be invested. He noted instead the constituents that Hamm represents in Lycoming and Sullivan counties.
"They give me my marching orders," he said.
He provided the figures as presented, noting the budget, as proposed, represents an 8% increase over last session, which was $47.6 billion.
"That is $3.9 billion more," Hamm said.
From a historical context, the 1998 state budget was $18 billion.
Taxpayers have seen a $33 billion increase in 27 years, he said.
"We can't keep spending a billion a year," Hamm said.
One challenge in deciding on the state's budget Hamm cited is a population that, admittedly, is older and getting older, as people tend to live longer with patient and medical care.
That age increase has led to an economic problem facing Pennsylvania. As Pennsylvania's get older, fewer are working full-time, Hamm said.
The programs he sees as worthy of support includes one that pays farmers for their surplus produce – tomatoes, lettuce, greens and corn, among other produce – that is then provided to food banks and food distribution points, preventing food insecurity for thousands of Pennsylvanians.
"I can get on board," Hamm said with the proposed additional $4 million for this program.
"It's a win-win," he said, adding it helps support farmers and reduces food insecurity, an issue that has motivated him to volunteer himself at Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.
Moreover, Hamm, who served over three decades in volunteer fire service, is supportive of the administration putting $30 million more into the state's volunteer fire companies and Emergency Medical Service agencies, many of which could use even more as their numbers continue to dwindle and the requirements to be certified as a firefighter and EMT or emergency management responder require longer hours and more challenging steps.
"We agree on that," Hamm said, adding he'd like to see that grow to $100 million.
However, Hamm confesses he has turned a wary eye to Shapiro's plans to increase revenue by legalizing and taxing marijuana, his need to remain loyal to a Democratic base by pressing forward with green new energy initiatives and alternative energy sources and not addressing the end of bureaucratic red tape when it comes to issuance of permits for cleaning up streams that often cause major flooding disasters and making permit predictability the watch phrase for energy companies that want to tap into and deliver the abundant sources of fossil fuels beneath the state's surface.
This kind of spending on taxpayers – many of whom are more concerned about paying their utility bills, buying groceries and feeding their family – is "unsustainable."
Again, he added, "my responsibility is to be protective of our taxpayers."