Josh Shapiro is the least productive Pennsylvania governor of the last 50 years

Pennsylvania Republicans were in a lather last November after Josh Shapiro sailed into the governorship and Democrats took the state House of Representatives by just one vote. Sure, Shapiro sounded like a Republican on the campaign trail, but some on the right couldn’t stop fretting about the legislation this popular new governor and his House might push through.

They needn’t have worried. Shapiro’s first nine months in office have been a legislative flop.

Shapiro, unlike his predecessors, won’t publish his daily schedule, so it’s hard to know what he’s doing. Also, unlike his predecessors, he’s low on first-year achievements. Through the end of July, only 15 bills reached Shapiro’s desk. This contrasts — according to an analysis by the Commonwealth Foundation going back to 1975 — with an average of 86 bills signed into law by his predecessors in the same time frame.

By that standard alone, Shapiro is the least productive governor of Pennsylvania in the last 50 years.

Here’s what Shapiro has been doing: He failed for months to close a deal on the budget, which is still unfinished. He traveled out of state to audition for a future presidential run. He has mostly kept quiet about the sexual harassment complaints that led his longtime political ally and top political aide, Mike Vereb, to resign after being accused of sexually harassing (and then retaliating against) a subordinate. Shapiro also vetoed his own priority of passing Lifeline Scholarships.

To be sure, Shapiro did a magnificent job getting I-95 reopened in just 12 days after a bridge collapsed. Just ask him.

Many in Harrisburg saw Shapiro as a political savant — a moderate Democrat who could win over not just swing voters but Republicans as well. His ability to cut through the bureaucracy on the I-95 disaster only added to this sheen.

His savant status was called into question this July when Democratic House Majority Leader Matt Bradford upended Shapiro’s hard-won deal with Senate Republicans on Lifeline Scholarships. When Bradford broke ranks with the governor, Shapiro was forced to veto Lifeline Scholarships.

That Shapiro struck a deal with Republicans and forgot to bring along his own House leaders smacks of ineptitude. It’s also tragic for needy kids. Shapiro once said he would fight for Pennsylvania children the way he would fight for his own kids. It’s hard to believe Shapiro would veto a program leaving his kids stranded in schools where they suffer violent and dangerous conditions like so many children in Philadelphia’s schools face every day.

Even some Democratic leaders are acknowledging both sides know what needs to get done. “The Lifeline, or the voucher program [the Republican priority], and the Level Up program that Democrats support are really the linchpin to getting to a complete resolution here,” state Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa said a few weeks ago. But Costa also noted they need leadership. “Until we reconcile those two differences, we’ll be at a logjam here.”

Ending that logjam requires a governor.

The legislature has been in session since September, giving Shapiro plenty of opportunities to step in and close this deal by now. Worse, the governor is refusing to acknowledge what he knew and when about the sexual harassment allegations against Vereb, especially considering the glowing statements his administration made about Vereb as he was stepping down amid the scandal.

The sexual harassment scandal isn’t going away. Especially after Shapiro allowed his administration to use $295,000 of taxpayer dollars to sign a potential sexual harassment victim to a nondisclosure agreement. It’s a scandalous betrayal by a governor who portrayed himself as a champion of sexual abuse survivors. The public deserves answers.

They also deserve Shapiro to deliver on his campaign promises. If he is unsure of how to do that, he should ask advice from fellow governors also overseeing divided government. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, all Democrats, worked with their Republican legislatures to enact substantive income tax cuts. As did Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin with his Democratic legislature in Virginia, while also managing to give state law enforcement a raise.

Shapiro can’t wait for another bridge collapse to get something done.

He needs to build bridges with Republicans after burning them on the Lifeline Scholarship deal and to start leading his party to pass effective legislation that benefits all Pennsylvanians.