Dear Neighbor,

Public schools, retired teachers, police officers and firefighters all see major investments in Pennsylvania’s new budget! Last night Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the budget! It’s a bipartisan, balanced package that invests in our future, without raising taxes or drawing from Pennsylvania’s Rainy Day Fund.

Image: With Gov. Shapiro and my house colleagues Rep. Kyle Mullins and Rep. Steve Malagari last night.

Highlights include:

📚 Historic investments in public education, including another $157 million for Philadelphia schools.
🏥 Expanded healthcare funding, including more than $600 million for Medicaid, increased mental health funding, and nearly doubled support for rape crisis centers.
🥤 A long-awaited cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for many retired teachers, firefighters, and police officers.
🛡️ Continued investments in public safety and violence prevention.

At a time when federal funding for education and healthcare is being slashed, Pennsylvania is continuing to invest in both.

The budget package also includes four bills I’ve been working on that are now law:

Expands affordable housing opportunities 🏡
Improves mental health services 🏥
Combats human trafficking ⚖️
Helps ensure students learn in safe & healthy school buildings 👩🏻‍🏫

More below.

Warm regards,

Tarik

📞 215-482-8726
📧 RepKhan@pahouse.net
📍 4001 Main St., #101, Manayunk

In This Issue:

👩‍🏫 Supporting Retired Public Servants
📚 Investing in Our Children’s Future
💰 More Money Back in Your Pocket
🏥 Expanding Access to Health Care
🛡️ Keeping You Safe
🏨 Strengthening the Fight Against Human Trafficking
🐕 Last Word

👩🏽‍🏫👮🏽👨🏽‍🚒Supporting Retired Public Servants

The budget provides a long-awaited cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for many retired teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public employees whose pensions have not kept pace with inflation.

For many retirees who dedicated decades of service to our communities, this adjustment will help their retirement income better reflect today’s cost of living. As Governor Shapiro mentioned in his press conference, some retirees can expect to see an increase of $3,600 a year!

Image: With Reps Malagari & Dougherty last night who championed the COLA increase law for teachers, police & firefighters.

📚Investing in Our Kids' Future

Even as federal education funding faces deep cuts, Pennsylvania continues investing in our students, teachers, and schools.

This budget provides $157 million MORE for Philly schools over last year. That brings more than $600 million to Philly schools over my past four budgets as your state rep — as we continue closing the school funding gap identified by the commonwealth court.

Image: With Appropriations Chair Jordan Harris, a former teacher who has directed over $600 million in additional funding back to Philly public school over the last 4 years.

The budget package also includes legislation I introduced with Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler to create a statewide inventory of school buildings, helping identify aging facilities and prioritize repairs so every student can learn in a safe, healthy classroom. Click here to learn more.

Our budget also:

Increases Special Ed funding by $50 million.
Invests more in Early Intervention, Pre-K, and childcare.
Expands Student Teacher Stipends to strengthen our educator workforce.
Increases support for PHEAA grants and loans and expands Grow PA and Ready to Succeed scholarships.

💰 More Money Back in Your Pocket

Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit: Nearly 950,000 working families will receive almost $200 million in tax relief this year thanks to the tax credit we passed last year.
Back-to-School Savings: A new sales tax holiday will help families save on school supplies and technology.
Lower Utility Costs: New measures will help reduce long-term electricity costs and increase transparency from large energy users.

Image: With PA House Leader Matt Bradford who helped lead and engineer the final product.

The budget also expands housing options, caps rental application fees, and enacts a bill I passed during my first term increasing funding for the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) Fund from $80 million to $90 million, helping build, preserve, and repair affordable housing across the commonwealth!

🏥Expanding Access to Healthcare

As a nurse practitioner, I know healthcare is about helping people live healthier, more independent lives.

Despite uncertainty and reductions in federal healthcare funding, this budget continues to invest in the health of Pennsylvanians by:

Increasing Medicaid funding by more than $615 million.
Expanding mental health services, including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and crisis stabilization centers.
Nearly doubling funding for rape crisis centers, helping survivors access critical services and support.
Creating 1,250 new Medicaid waiver slots for people with intellectual disabilities and autism.
Increasing mental health funding by $40 million, including $10 million for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and funding for walk-in mental health crisis centers.
Investing $2.5 million in nursing education and scholarships to strengthen our healthcare workforce.
Providing $5 million for neurodegenerative disease research.
Increasing funding for CHIP to help children access healthcare and increasing nursing home funding.

Image: Visiting Gaudenzia on Henry last summer with (my twin) Rep. Roni Green.

The budget package also includes my bill transferring the Gaudenzia Henry Avenue campus to the nonprofit. This was something that I worked on with SEIU 668, FOP 92, Rep. Roni Green and the state government after concerns of the building falling into disrepair.

Image: Thank you card from workers of SEIU 668 for advocating for improving their workplace.

Our new law will allow critical renovations that will improve care for people receiving mental health and addiction treatment while supporting the dedicated union workforce that provides those services.

🛡️Keeping You Safe

Keeping our communities safe means preventing crime, supporting victims, and giving first responders the tools they need.

This budget:

Continues funding for violence prevention and school safety.
Provides additional resources to investigate internet predators, child exploitation, and human trafficking.
Invests in four new cadet classes for the PA State Police and helps invest in technology to help local police solve crime.
Invests $2.6 million for the Pennsylvania Prison Society and $600,000 for a new prison transportation program to help families stay connected with incarcerated loved ones, supporting rehabilitation and successful reentry.
Invests $7 million in chip-enabled EBT cards to help protect SNAP recipients from benefit theft — championed in the PA Senate by our own Sens. Sharif Street and Art Haywood!

Image: With Sen. Street outside the budget signing.

And building on our work with Rep. Jordan Harris to secure the first $5 million for Pennsylvania’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, we secured another $10 million last year, and this year’s budget includes an additional $10 million to help houses of worship and other nonprofits strengthen security against hate crimes and other threats.

🏨Helping End Human Trafficking

The budget package also includes my bipartisan bill with Rep. Regina Young requiring hospitality employees to receive human-trafficking awareness training every two years.

Image: With coprime sponsors Reps. Robert Leadbetter and Young.

Hotel employees and other hospitality workers are often in a unique position to recognize the warning signs of trafficking and connect victims with help. Our new law mandates training across the board training will give them the tools to do exactly that.

These are practical measures that help protect vulnerable Pennsylvanians and strengthen our communities.

🐕Last Word

No budget is ever perfect. While I was disappointed that we weren’t able to include priorities like raising the minimum wage and providing stable, dedicated funding for public transit, I’m proud of what we accomplished. This budget will make a real difference for families across Pennsylvania, and I’ll keep fighting for the priorities we haven’t yet achieved.