HARRISBURG — Harrisburg policymakers appear unlikely to embrace a signature selling point in Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s first budget: a tax credit for new police, teachers, and nurses.

Tax credits allow an individual or corporation to pay less to the government, and have become a fixture in the General Assembly’s economic policy toolkit in recent years.

But in recent public remarks, state Senate Republicans threw cold water on Shapiro’s plan, arguing for lowering Pennsylvania’s corporate and flat personal income taxes to benefit all industries while still expressing interest in expanding corporate tax credits to attract big businesses to the state.

“Figuring out economic incentives” to attract new projects, from microchips to new natural gas-fired power plants, “is where we have to go,” state Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) told reporters in April.