In a speech running more than 90 minutes, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro laid out a $51.4 billion state budget Tuesday that included legalizing recreational marijuana, taxing skilled games of chance, and increasing the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour.

Shapiro said Pennsylvania residents go to nearby states to buy marijuana, and he anticipates $250 million in new revenue from taxing recreational cannabis. He also expects taxes on games of chance would bring in $8 billion in new revenue over five years.

But Dan Bartkowiak with the Pennsylvania Family Institute warned marijuana legalization would increase traffic accidents and lead to increased addiction, as well as other mental health problems like psychosis.

In Pittsburgh last week, Shapiro unveiled his “Lightning Plan” for energy–an allusion to Benjamin Franklin–so he only mentioned it briefly in his budget address.

His energy plan would fund new projects through an updated Pennsylvania Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) manufacturing tax credit. It would also streamline energy project approvals by creating a state energy board to cut red tape and encourage communities to lower utility bills through shared energy resources.

Additionally, the would plan increase rebates for energy-efficient appliances. The Lightning Plan would spur “clean energy” development in the commonwealth, positioning Pennsylvania, including PACER, a climate-change pan to reduce emissions, he said.

Americans for Prosperity Pennsylvania state Director Emily Greene called Shapiro’s energy plan a way “to make Pennsylvania more expensive” and “strangle Pennsylvania’s energy sector.”

“While we appreciate a renewed focus on permitting and regulatory reform, proposals such as PRESS and PACER would undercut the broad-based benefits of Pennsylvania natural gas, said Jim Welty, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. “Imposing new energy taxes and electricity mandates that intentionally sideline natural gas not only impedes our ability to attract job-creating capital investment, but it drives up energy costs for consumers while threatening power reliability by exacerbating an already fragile electric grid.”

While others focused on Shapiro’s laundry list of proposals, Rep. Seth Grove (R-Dover) focused on the math.

“Shapiro came into office with a budget of $42.7 billion and an $8 billion budget surplus. In just his third budget, he has eviscerated the $8 billion budgetary surplus and is proposing to balloon the state budget by $9 billion from when he took office by raiding the Rainy Day Fund.

“This level of financial mismanagement, even for Pennsylvania, is unprecedented,” said Grove.

House Minority Leader Rep. Jesse Topper (R-Bedford) said Shapiro’s energy proposal would cause “instability in the market” and that instead he should get out of the way.

“One of the best things we can do in Pennsylvania to ignite our economy is to unleash our energy industry,” he said. “And the first thing that comes with that is to get us of out of RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Initiative, and ensuring that nothing even takes its place.”

Minority Appropriations Chairman Jim Struzzi (R-Indiana) said Shapiro’s proposal for a $3.6 billion or 7.5 percent increase from last year comes “at a time we only expect revenues to grow by $1.3 billion. So, where is that money coming from?”

With the new proposed taxes, he’s “banking on revenues that we don’t have right now, draining our surplus to zero and taking $1.6 billion from the Rainy Day Fund,” Struzzi said.

Rep. Donna Scheuren (R-Harleysville) said she could support some of the governor’s proposals, but is concerned that Shapiro plans to raid the Rainy Day Fund.

“Projected revenues do not increase enough to match this spending, nor will his Hail Mary of legalizing marijuana get us there either, so Gov. Shapiro has once again proposed to drain our surplus. This time, however, the drain will see our surpluses fully depleted by the end of the 2025-26 fiscal year, putting Pennsylvania in a dire fiscal spot,” Scheuren said.

To make the tax system fairer, Shapiro would like to close “the Delaware loophole,” where some 11 percent of corporations register in Delaware to avoid paying taxes to Pennsylvania while “they use our roads and bridges and schools and parks.”

He would also continue to cut business taxes to entice new firms to relocate to the state.

“Here I am, a Democratic governor with an aggressive plan to cut taxes,” said Shapiro.

Among Shapiro’s long list of proposals is adding $75 million to basic education funding, $536 million to the poorest schools, and increasing special education by $40 million. He also proposed reforming cyber charter schools to save public school districts $378 million a year. Additionally, he would also add $5.5 million to career and technical education.

He would spend $55 million for childcare worker hiring and retention bonuses of at least $1,000 each. And $10 million more for early intervention services for children.

Republican Senate leaders noted this is Shapiro’s third budget without his campaign promise of funding for Lifeline Scholarships or the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success program to help children in failing schools explore different educational options in an environment that better suits their needs.

Shapiro said the state should invest $95 million in the life sciences industry that already employees more than 100,000 people. Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Pennsylvania spend more than $1 billion annually on research and development in that field.

“The foundation is here,” he said. “We just need to connect the dots.”

He also touted the state’s agriculture sector, proposing $13 million in grant programs and another $8 million in other agriculture-related programs.

Shapiro proposed more spending for mass transit, roads, and bridges. He would add 1.75 percent to the current 7.69 percent sales and use taxes earmarked for the Public Transportation Trust Fund. That would add $292.5 million to mass transit for 2025-26.

“We now know what Shapiro thinks the lesson of the 2024 election was,” said said Guy Ciarrocchi, a Republican pundit. “Double-down on the failed Biden-Harris progressive policies of taxes, spending, green-energy and siding with the teachers’ union over students… but, try a new messenger.

“It will likely fail politically—and worse, it will harm students, small businesses and taxpayers.”