Maybe there’s a deal to be had on raising minimum wage

• Emily Previti/PA Post
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  Emily is a reporter for WITF who’s been covering voting and elections since July 2019 as part of her former role with statehouse accountability news organization PA Post. She was the senior reporter for statewide public media collaboration Keystone Crossroads. Previously, she covered city hall for PennLive/The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.), was a watchdog and city hall reporter at The Press of Atlantic City and reported for the Northwest Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
  
  See other articles by Emily Previti for WITF.

 Matt Rourke / AP Photo

Shown is the Pennsylvania Capitol building Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015, Harrisburg, Pa.

From The Context, PA Post’s weekday email newsletter:

Budget goings-on

• Republicans won’t agree to Gov. Tom Wolf’s minimum wage increase proposal — but they’d consider something less dramatic, according to what Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, said at yesterday’s PA Press Club luncheon. Here’s the rundown from the Associated Press.

• Fourteen universities make up the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education — and they’re struggling. Jen Kinney checked in on the PASSHE budget hearing for Keystone Crossroads last week.

• Today, state-related universities have their audience before state senators regarding next year’s budget. Distinct from PASSHE schools, they are Lincoln, Penn State, Temple and Pitt. There hasn’t been as much chatter about financial issues among that group, though.

Best of the rest

Ed Mahon / PA Post

Many districts in southwestern Pennsylvania would receive money under a proposal to raise all school district salaries to at least $45,000 a year.

• The Department of Education’s budget hearing isn’t until next week, but we can expect some discussion about Wolf’s proposal to require public school teachers to make no less than $45,000 per year. PA Post’s Ed Mahon put together this explainer, if you want to get up to speed ahead of time.

• Sunoco’s parent company Energy Transfer admitted on a conference call with investors that it made mistakes with its Mariner East project. StateImpact Pennsylvania’s Jon Hurdle has the details and responses from other stakeholders in this story.

• Election officials in 18 counties took gifts from voting machine vendors since the state made it clear equipment would have to be upgraded in time for the 2020 primary election. WESA has the list, as per the state Auditor General’s office, here.