In addition to new funding, the budget calls for reforms designed to protect renters and homeowners. Among the changes are limits on rental application fees, sealing eviction records for tenants who were never ultimately evicted, authorizing transfer-on-death deeds for primary residences and placing guardrails on annual lot rent increases in manufactured home communities.

Going from executive order to state budget-funded, however, will require an act of the legislature and buy-in from Senate Republicans who have balked at the governor’s proposed overall spending.

“The governor simply wants to spend too much money in this budget, full stop,” Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman,R-Indiana, said earlier this month.

State Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, said he “looked forward” to working with both parties.

“There’ll be stuff you can do by executive order, governor, and we want to make sure that gets done,” he said. “But it’s going to be the Legislature that can make sure that all of the systematic changes get done and the money gets appropriated as well.”

Shapiro said the plan would take the commonwealth “from the bottom of the pack to being a national leader when it comes to housing construction.”

“We will reduce homelessness to the lowest levels in the entire region, and we’ll create new opportunities for millions of Pennsylvanians,” he said.

To coordinate this work, the Department of Community and Economic Development will establish Pennsylvania’s first Deputy Secretary for Housing. Rick Siger, who leads the department, said the position will focus on aligning housing efforts across agencies and driving implementation of the plan.

Val Arkoosh, secretary of the Department of Human Services, emphasized the connection between stable housing and health. Drawing on her experience as a physician in Philadelphia hospitals, she described treating patients who repeatedly cycled through emergency rooms because they lacked stable housing.

“I could prescribe antibiotics. I could prescribe insulin. But the one essential treatment I could not prescribe was a home,” Arkoosh said.

At the governor’s announcement, Philadelphia resident Eunique Carr said she and her daughter nearly became homeless after her parental partner passed away, but received legal help from Community Legal Services.

“Not only were we dealing with the loss of our loved one, but we were also in danger of losing our family home and heading for foreclosure,” Carr said. “I would like to thank Gov. Shapiro for announcing his new housing plan, including reforms to help other families going through the same hardship.”

Easton City Council is urging state legislators to raise the minimum wage, which has remained $7.25 per hour since 2009.

City council unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday evening calling on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to increase the Commonwealth’s minimum wage. The resolution was introduced by Vice Mayor Frank Pintabone.

The resolution emphasizes the current minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation or rising costs such as housing, healthcare and transportation.

The resolution notes the financial strain facing low-wage workers in the Lehigh Valley and across the state, stating that many full-time workers continue to struggle to meet basic household needs.

An increase would provide economic relief, reduce reliance on public assistance programs and stimulate local economies, officials said.

Minimum wage increases can strengthen local economies, reduce employee turnover and improve workforce productivity without negatively affecting long-term job growth, according to the resolution. Municipalities like Easton are limited by state law and cannot set their own local minimum wage.

The resolution will be sent to Gov. Josh Shapiro, legislative leaders and Easton’s state legislative delegation. Shapiro has been vocal about the issue, urging legislators to put a minimum wage bill on his desk.

In 2025, Allentown and Bethlehem’s city councils passed similar resolutions urging a minimum wage increase.

“So hopefully we’re going to follow Bethlehem and Allentown and apply pressure to get [The Pennsylvania General Assembly] to do that,” Pintabone said.

A pending bill, House Bill 1549, proposes a minimum wage increase. It has passed the state House of Representatives but has not advanced in the state senate since last June. The bill outlines incremental increases based on county classification, which is determined by population.

Under the proposal, first class counties would have reached a $15 per hour minimum wage by Jan. 1, 2026. Second, third class and certain fourth class counties would have reached $12 per hour by Jan. 1, 2026, with incremental increases bringing the wage to $15 by Jan. 1, 2028. Counties classified between fifth and eighth class, and other fourth class counties of lower populations, would have seen a $12 minimum wage by Jan. 1, 2028.

According to the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia County is the Commonwealth’s only first class county. Northampton and Lehigh counties, which include Easton and much of the Lehigh Valley, are classified as third class counties.

Gov. Josh Shapiro on Wednesday signed a bill that will require a cursive handwriting curriculum in all Pennsylvania public schools.

“I’m definitely rusty, but I think my penmanship was okay!” Shapiro said in his Wednesday announcement.

The bipartisan legislation, House Bill 17, was sponsored by Rep. Dane Watro (R-Luzerne and Schuylkill) with support from 15 other Republicans and three Democrats.

Watro cited research that shows learning cursive “activates areas of the brain involved in executive function, fine motor skills, and working memory.” He also said skipping over cursive curriculum “robs students of the chance to master this age-appropriate challenge.”

In the bill, Watro noted the Nevada Secretary of State had many issues with mail-in ballots from young voters without “developed signatures.”

The bill went on to say that learning to read and write cursive will help young generations as they read historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

However, Pennsylvania’s former Education Secretary Khalid Mumin said cursive instruction is not vital for public classrooms.

“Secretary Mumin encourages schools to determine the best paths for their students to learn to communicate effectively in writing and achieve success, regardless of the mode of writing used to get there,” said education department spokesman Taj Magruder.

A similar bill was proposed by Rep. Joe Adams (R-Wayne and Pike) during the 2024-2025 legislative session.

“You can’t open a bank account without signing your name. You can’t buy a property or get a credit card without having to be able to sign your name,” Adams said.

Adams also noted a person’s signature could act as a unique identifier that artificial intelligence struggles to reproduce.

In total, 24 other states have laws that require cursive to be taught in public schools, nearly twice as many — 14 — as there were a decade ago.