About 10 weeks ago, Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled his 2026-27 state budget proposal. The budget is due June 30 — about 11 weeks away.

As close to the mid-point as we are, we hope our lawmakers are making substantive progress on deciding what the state budget should look like.

We can reiterate what we said about 10 weeks ago — Shapiro’s proposal spends too much money.

Our state is facing real, long-term challenges to how we fund public education. Courts have determined the disparities between school districts and property values are great enough that Pennsylvania is not truly offering its youngest equal opportunities for education.

Adding to our concern, the property tax system used to fund education is, in many cases, placing to great a strain on homeowners — particularly elderly homeowners on fixed incomes. Communities across the state would benefit greatly from property tax relief — relief structured in a sustainabile way, without abruptly shifting burdens onto our communities’ workforces.

These two issues are complex and nuanced. Fair solutions are not going to be easy to decide upon. But we remain confident of two points: We need to solve these problems — both of them. And our chances of finding such solutions only get worse if the state has acclimatized its constituents to expect lavish spending on just about every other facet of life.

There are, of course, many reasons to be skeptical of runaway state spending — but there really doesn’t need to be. The necessities of more equitable funding for schools and of delivering serious property tax relief should, by themselves, dissuade our legislators from agreeing to the spend-and-tax-later nature of the governor’s proposal.