As budget deadline approaches, Shapiro visits Hummelstown to push ‘Main Street’ investment plan

With less than two weeks remaining before Pennsylvania’s nominal state budget deadline, Gov. Josh Shapiro made a stop in Hummelstown on Monday to promote what is likely one of his least politically difficult budgetary requests.

Shapiro toured businesses in the borough to talk up his proposed Main Street Matters initiative which — were it to be included in the upcoming budget — would be a $25 million allocation to provide seed money for downtown revitalization projects.

“It’s communities like this that, let’s be frank, have too often times been forgotten when you ultimately have to make those tough decisions when it comes to a budget,” Shapiro said in remarks following Monday’s tour. “I’m here to tell you that will no longer be the case as long as I’m your governor.”

Both the Republican-majority state Senate and the Democratic-majority state House are expected to return next week for the final push of budget negotiations before Pennsylvania’s fiscal year ends on June 30 — although as seen last year there is little immediate harm if the governor and lawmakers take a few extra days or even weeks to hammer out a deal.

Shapiro stressed the importance of policies both relatively small, such as the Main Street Matters program, and relatively large, such as Democrats’ multi-billion dollar education funding plan — but declined to draw any budgetary hard lines on Monday, keeping his comments open-ended.

“I don’t know exactly how things are going to turn out over the next few weeks in terms of each and every line item,” Shapiro said. “But here’s what I know to be a point of fact — everyone’s going to have to compromise, and no one’s going to get everything they want.”

The Main Street Matters initiative, according to Shapiro’s budget framework, would be modeled on the prior Keystone Communities program, which provided grant funding to municipal governments and business associations to improve downtown infrastructure and revitalize storefronts.

Those members of the Hummelstown business community who were interviewed said such funding could be put to good use, describing a downtown whose businesses share a sense of camaraderie that wouldn’t exist if they had opened up in a suburban strip mall.

“It’s not just about a restaurant, it’s not about one particular business, it’s about these people as a community,’ said Kylie Deimler, who in 2022 opened The 1762 — a restaurant named after Hummelstown’s year of founding — in the former Warwick Hotel building, which she and her husband are continuing to renovate.

Shapiro also visited Toys on the Square, which recently moved a few storefronts down Main Street into a larger building that had been occupied by a local pharmacy whose owners were retiring.

“We’re really proud” of the new space, store manager Jay Leoszewski told PennLive after Shapiro’s visit. The expansion, Leoszewski said, was driven as much by a desire to prevent a major storefront from becoming vacant as it was by financial gain — a sense of shared social responsibility common to Hummelstown businesses.

People who come into Hummelstown to shop at one store then go to others, and “there’s a certain synergy to being downtown” said Jodi Pendolino, who along with her husband Nick opened What Momma Makes, a café and ready-made meal preparation service.

Shapiro described his Main Street Matters plan as one of several “common sense, bipartisan investments” on which Pennsylvania could spend part of the $14 billion the state has between its general fund surplus and “rainy day” reserve balance.

The governor’s $48.3 billion general fund budget would spend this down to around $11 billion by the end of the next fiscal year; Republicans have said this drawn-down is too fast while also pitching a set of tax cuts they say they would prefer compared to many of Shapiro’s new programs.

But there is still room for deal-making, and “I can’t imagine” something like Main Street Matters not getting broad budget support, said Rep. Tom Mehaffie, R-Dauphin County, whose district includes the Hummelstown and Hershey areas.

Mehaffie is one of a few remaining centrist Republicans who has crossed the aisle on key votes — including recent budgets — and agreed that Shapiro’s Main Street Matters initiative represented a good consensus point for bipartisanship.

“Every single representative, every single senator has a Main Street in their districts, and that is one thing I think that’ll drive this initiative forward,” Mehaffie told PennLive after Monday’s appearance.

“If it doesn’t happen, coming out of the pandemic, then shame on us as the General Assembly if we can’t get this done,” Mehaffie continued. “This is probably the easiest ask anybody could ever have as a legislator.”