Votes Signal Breakthrough In Pennsylvania Budget Stalemate
HARRISBURG (KDKA) - It could be the breakthrough everyone was hoping for.
Late Tuesday, the state House set itself up for a vote Wednesday on the compromise budget already approved by the state Senate.
The vote was 100 to 97.
The budget log-jam in the state House may have just been broken, although everybody is holding their breath until a final vote is taken on Wednesday.
"We took a major step forward today in moving a general appropriation bill or the budget to a position where we are very hopeful it will get a positive vote tomorrow," Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel, a Squirrel Democrat and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told KDKA political editor Jon Delano.
In a procedural vote, a couple dozen Republican lawmakers joined the Democrats in rejecting House Republican leaders' so-called stop-gap budget -- and instead scheduled a vote on the already-approved Senate Republican spending plan that Gov. Tom Wolf has agreed to.
"We finally got a yes vote on a budget that has been agreed to by all four caucuses. It's now in position tomorrow for a final passage vote to go directly to the governor's desk which he says he will sign," said Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Markosek, a Monroeville Democrat and Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee.
That's a $30.8 billion spending bill that boosts funding for education by $450 million.
Two local House Republicans joined in voting yes to set up a final vote on this bi-partisan budget deal – Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Ellis of Butler and Pennsylvania Rep. Hal English of Hampton.
Left unresolved is how to pay for this -- which could be a higher sales tax or higher income tax.
Markosek says, "The additional revenue will mostly come from an increase in the personal income tax."
A rate hike from 3.07 percent to 3.3 percent or $115 of new tax on every $50,000 of earned income.
Of course, nothing is a done deal yet.
"I am optimistic, but I've been here 17 years, and I know it's never done until the board is lit up green -- that means the yes votes are counted," notes Frankel.
Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Wolf joined the "KDKA Morning News" and said the latest setback was the House Republicans' fault.
"We had an agreement, a five-party agreement, the Senate Republicans, the Senate Democrats, House Democrats, House Republicans and me," said Wolf. "Up till Saturday, we were in the frame of getting a budget done. The Republicans in the House blew that up."
Wolf said he is, "mystified" that there isn't a budget yet.
House Republicans have said they have a partial funding bill that would make it possible for schools to get the funding they need. Wolf said he would veto it.
"It doesn't have the money the schools actually need. This is what this whole budget negation has been about," he said.
He added that passing the stop gap, "wouldn't get us anywhere."
Wolf says he is, "so sympathetic and saddened," that some schools may actually shut down after the first of the year.
He added that the budget impasse should not have, "lasted this long, but we need a budget that actually funds those schools with real dollars and real revenue to back it up so that we have a balanced budget that makes the investments these schools need."
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