Pennsylvania’s always-contentious budget season is heating up. In one instance, quite literally.

Sen. Dawn Keefer, R-York County, got blowback from Democrats over the weekend after posting a video in which she torches Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal with a flame thrower.

Keefer, one the legislature’s more hardline conservatives, posted the video to her social media accounts on Friday.

In it, she likens resistance to Shapiro’s budget to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, in which farmers in western Pennsylvania launched violent attacks against public officials in protest of a tax on whiskey — one of the federal government’s first attempts to generate revenue.

“Over 230 years ago, Pennsylvanians held the line against taxation,” Keefer says before the video cuts to a shot of her torching a large sign reading “Shapiro’s $51.5B fantasy budget” while Toto’s 1978 arena rock hit “Hold the Line” plays in the background.

Gov. Shapiro’s so-called “budget” would pave the way for a 52% income tax hike. But just like the farmers in the Whiskey Rebellion, we say: ????????????????????????.

????No new taxes????No increased taxes????No budget gimmicks????No deficit spending

We must HOLD THE #PABUDGET LINE at $47.9 B! pic.twitter.com/JGllCib1mo

— Senator Dawn Keefer (@SenatorKeefer) May 9, 2025

The video comes a month after Shapiro and his family were evacuated from the Governor’s Residence during a firebombing that left part of the building badly damaged.

It also comes about two weeks after a pair of major forest fires burned roughly 2,700 acres in Michaux State Forest, just a few miles away from Keefer’s Senate district.

Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny County, said in a social media post that the video was “truly disgusting” and that “violent, political rhetoric like this is how people get hurt,” and called on Keefer and GOP leadership to apologize.

Keefer did not respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.

While Keefer gave the most dramatic delivery of a budget policy position thus far, her stance is generally reflective of the political reality in Harrisburg. Republicans are pushing Shapiro to pare down his $51.5 billion general fund spending plan, which would run a $4.8 billion deficit and require the state to dip into its reserve fund.

In the video, Keefer asserted that Shapiro “is pushing a 52% income tax hike,” and that the state should “hold the line” at the current budget’s spending level of $47.9 billion.

Shapiro is not proposing to increase the personal income tax rate, and his budget framework includes a decrease in the corporate net income tax rate as part of a phased reduction plan.

But conservative legislators have said Shapiro’s projections for growing revenue and limiting costs are unreasonably optimistic, and put the state at risk of having to hike taxes in the future. Keefer’s website clarifies that her 52% tax hike claim is based on her projection of the state’s deficit through the 2027-28 budget.

The governor’s administration has remained confident that its plans will grow Pennsylvania’s tax base, and will be buoyed by new revenue sources such as legalized recreational marijuana and the regulation of “skill games” terminals — although a legislative deal on such measures remains daunting.

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