The state House of Representatives’ passage of a one-house budget means fiscal sanity now rests in the hands of the state Senate.

House members passed a budget that is nearly identical to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s $53.3 billion budget proposal in a largely party line vote. Five Republicans voted with Democrats. House passage of a budget doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. It should come as no shock to anyone that Democrats would support their governor’s budget. Let’s give House Democrats a little bit of credit for not approving even more spending than Shapiro proposed as often happens in other states, including New York. And, Democrats passed the bill roughly 11 weeks before the June 30 budget deadline, so maybe there’s a chance a budget gets done on time if elected officials learned anything from last year’s debacle.

More important than simply an on-time budget is a good budget. That task will be up to state Republicans to help accomplish. In our view Shapiro’s budget spends far too much money and accomplishes far too little that helps people in Warren County. Republicans need to find a way to close a $5 billion gap between proposed spending and proposed revenue so that the state doesn’t burn through its reserves too quickly. They also need to find a way to make sure that rural priorities are included in the budget – and that includes finding increased funding for rural school districts like Warren County’s.

Republicans are right to have concerns about spending in the budgets Democrats are supporting. The clock is ticking to turn those concerns into a budget that state taxpayers can afford and that helps improve areas like ours. .