Episode 23: The greatest hits of Budget Hearings 2K19

The minimum wage, the debt-ridden turnpike, and what the commonwealth should require of people receiving public benefits.

• Katie Meyer/WITF
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

 Matt Rourke / AP Photo

A pedestrian walks past the dome of the Pennsylvania Capitol on the morning of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's scheduled budget address for the 2019-20 fiscal year in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019.

State lawmakers are in the middle of a long series of hearings on the budgets for Pennsylvania’s many agencies.

It’s a time for them to grill secretaries on what’s working, what’s not, and how money is being spent. And it gives agency heads a chance to lobby for more funding.

So this week, we’re recapping some of the biggest issues that have come up (repeatedly) thus far: the minimum wage, the debt-ridden turnpike, and what the commonwealth should require of people receiving public benefits.