Gov. Tom Wolf is asking the legislature to spend $91 million to raise a pivotal reimbursement rate for skilled nursing homes statewide. 

The goal is to help offset the costs from proposed new regulations that would increase daily required care and, as a result, provider payrolls.

With the state's June 30 budget deadline quickly approaching, the Democrat wants to increase the amount of money skilled nursing homes receive for residents on Medicaid — a key payer of such services.

But a lobbying group for long-term care providers here says Wolf's pitch, while welcome, doesn't go far enough, Spotlight PA reports. 

THE CONTEXT: In 2021, the Wolf administration updated Pennsylvania's decades-old nursing home regulations, acknowledging the state must improve quality-care requirements that experts called dangerous.

The new rules require staff spend more hours per day providing direct care to patients, which providers said would drive labor costs up.  

Since the start of the pandemic, the state has earmarked nearly $500 million to the hard-hit nursing home industry. But as one-time infusions, providers said the money wasn't enough to reverse troubling trends.

There does appear to be agreement among legislators that more investment is needed, but how to do so is still being debated.

If funding remains as is, advocacy networks, experts, and nurses fear facilities may be ill-equipped to support the aging population.

CLARIFICATION: Yesterday we said that Philly's Federal Donuts has dropped Martin's potato rolls over the company's ties to the far-right lawmaker and gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano. While the decision followed a public outcry, the chain hasn't explicitly cited Mastriano as the reason.

POLICY PAUSE: Amid concern over how the Democratic National Committee's gender-parity rules — the same meant to increase female participation in politics — would impact nonbinary candidates, the Lehigh County Democratic Committee temporarily dismissed the rules in certifying the recent winners of local committee posts, per The Morning Call.

MUSIC MEND: The birthplace of Black opera in the United States is in Pittsburgh, and after decades of decay and disrepair, renovations on the historic house are finally underway, WESA reports.

NO SMOKE: With the FDA considering a ban on menthol cigarettes, WHYY recounts how a group of Black Philadelphia leaders in the 80s managed to keep an entire brand of menthols off the market.

EASY A: See if you know the answer to this Jeopardy! question from Wednesday's episode: "A gentle hand gesture of affection by Pennsylvania's Toomey." The category was "The senator's first name."