PITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania’s state budget is now three months overdue.
This year’s impasse is now the longest since 2015, when it took lawmakers nine months to make a deal.
Democrats and Republicans, both on the state level and in Washington, can’t seem to come to an agreement.
That means the average person in Pennsylvania could find longer waits at the airport TSA security lines, and national parks with bare-bones staffing.
On the state level, the budget impasse in Harrisburg has led counties, including Armstrong and Westmoreland, to furlough workers.
University of Pittsburgh political science professor Chris Bonneau blames party polarization.
“Gone are the days where you have moderate Dems or moderate Democrats who hover around the middle, who sometimes go one way or sometimes another, which is essential to having democracy function. Most of those people get challenged in primaries and lose their elections.”
Bonneau says on the federal level, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are still very far apart. He says the shutdown could last weeks, even months.
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