Shapiro calls his first year a success despite some disappointments
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Shortly after his inauguration as governor last January, Josh Shapiro had his first sit-down television interview at KDKA-TV. Nearly a year later, the governor on Thursday sat down with KDKA-TV political editor Jon Delano to review his progress to date.
This is the time of year that politicians like to do wrap-ups on their successes over the last year, and Gov. Shapiro is no exception, but the governor is the first to admit that he didn't get everything in 2023 that he wanted.
Josh Shapiro returned to KDKA-TV with nearly a year under his belt as governor.
Delano: "What do you consider your greatest accomplishment as governor of Pennsylvania?"
Shapiro: "Look, I always hate to sort of single out one thing. I think in general, we're getting government working again. We're delivering for the good people of Pennsylvania -- investing in education, public safety, economic opportunity."
Shapiro said much of the year, he was confronting emergencies like the derailment in East Palestine and the collapse of I-95 in Philadelphia.
Shapiro: "We live by three letters every day in my administration. GSD. Get – this is a family program –"
Delano: "Stuff."
Shapiro: "Get stuff done."
Delano: "I know what the other word is."
Shapiro: "Right, that's what we are most proud of. We get stuff done for the good people of Pennsylvania."
But Shapiro candidly admits that he hasn't gotten the state Legislature in Harrisburg to approve all the proposals he is pushing.
"I know we got some unfinished business to do, and that's a product, I think, in many ways of the fact that I'm the only governor in the nation – the only one – with a divided legislature, meaning I've got one chamber run by Democrats, the other by Republicans," Shapiro said.
For example, he has not gotten the Democratic state House to approve his school choice demonstration project or the Republican Senate to approve an increase in the minimum wage and the slow pace of legislative action is a source of some frustration.
"These leaders, Republican and Democrat, have a responsibility to learn how to work together to be productive, to actually show up and have legislative session more than what they've been doing over the first year," Shapiro said.
The governor says despite that it has still been a good year on balance -- highest level of funding of public education, including free breakfast for all, 400 new state police officers and the largest targeted tax cut for seniors in two decades -- and that has required legislative agreement.
"Notwithstanding how relatively slow they've been to get bills to my desk, we've gotten a hell of a lot done," he said.
No surprise, the governor would give himself a positive grade, despite the challenges.
WATCH: Full interview