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HARRISBURG (AP) -- Republicans who control Pennsylvania's Senate passed spending legislation hours ahead of Saturday's start of a new fiscal year, but they lacked agreement with the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to keep state government's full spending authority intact.
Without new spending authority in place, the state will be legally barred from making some payments, although a stalemate must typically last weeks before an effect on services is felt.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has stayed out of sight in the Capitol and behind closed doors in his official residence, while House and Senate leaders sent rank-and-file lawmakers home Friday with no certain plans to return.
School spending was the main point of disagreement between the sides.
House and Senate leaders have maintained that they were more interested in negotiating a good budget than simply getting it done by Saturday's start of the 2023-24 fiscal year. In his remarks during floor debate, Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, acknowledged that differences remained with House Democrats.
"Our friends on the other side of the building clearly have a different point of view on where we should be at this moment in this commonwealth," Pittman said.
The main budget bill in the Senate GOP's $45 billion spending plan passed 29-21, a couple hours after it emerged Friday. Every Republican supported it and all but one Democrat voted against it. Shapiro's administration declined Friday to say whether he supports the Senate GOP plan, saying only that House and Senate leaders should continue to work toward compromise.
The plan is about a 5% increase from the last approved budget, although part of it -- about $600 million in aid for Penn State, Temple University and the University of Pittsburgh -- is in limbo and being held up by a House Republican bloc.