Our editorial board’s position likely will not come as a surprise.

A state budget proposal that, for the first time in history, spends more than $50 billion is irresponsible.

As the Associated Press notes, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal increases spending over the previous year — a budget that itself, we argued, was reckless in its spending increases — by nearly 10%. This year’s proposal would spend billions of the state’s reserve, leaving Pennsylvania less prepared for any economic downturn — and would spend those billions even if the Republican-controlled Senate agreed to several mechanisms they almost certainly will not.

When Republicans in the state Legislature reject calls to legalize recreational marijuana, when Republicans either reject calls to scale back reimbursements to cyber charter schools or only scale them back to a more modest extent than upon which Shapiro’s proposal relies, the degree to which the state would dip into its reserves only grows.

If the state Legislature heeds the concerns of prison guards and corrections officers and keeps the two state prisons Shapiro recommends closing open, the degree to which the state will dip into its reserves grows again.

The only responsible budget is one that allows our lawmakers the opportunity to address tenuously connected issues such as marijuana legalization or decriminalization, or prison closures, or taxes or fees on skill games — an industry that creates jobs in our own region — on their own merits, rather than as mere pieces in the governor’s budgetary puzzle.

The only responsible budget is one that leaves the lion’s share of our state’s fiscal reserves in place for truly trying times.

The only responsible course of action is a budget that reduces — not increases — spending.