The Pennsylvania Senate approves both a budget bill and another to fund a transit plan.

The Pennsylvania Senate approved Tuesday both a budget bill and another to fund a transit plan. The Republican-controlled Senate passed two major bills along party lines, one of which was a general fund appropriations bill, and the other was regarding a $1.2 billion transit plan. The proposed bill would put $293 million to transit agencies and the same amount to road and bridge projects across Pennsylvania during this fiscal year, in part by dipping into a transit trust fund. 40 million would go to Pittsburgh Regional Transit to avoid service cuts and fare hikes, but the bill clashes with legislation passed Monday by House Democrats. That bill calls for the same amount of transit funding but would increase the share of sales and use tax revenues to do it. An impasse remains unresolved, the state is without a budget and lawmakers don't return to Harrisburg until next month.