Wolf Won't Endorse House Budget Plan, Says It's Not Balanced
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the main appropriations bill in a nearly $31.6 billion budget plan, but lawmakers failed to persuade Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf that the plan is either balanced or adequate.
With two days until the state's 2016-17 fiscal year deadline, Wolf refused to endorse the House's spending plan that he said does not include enough revenue to "truly" address a long-term deficit. He said he hoped the Senate would fix the flaws.
The Republican-controlled House passed the main appropriations bill, 132-68, with support from House Democratic leaders, putting Wolf in a position of criticizing a plan his close allies are backing. It calls for a 5 percent increase in spending and holding the line on state taxes on income and sales, House officials said.
Top Senate officials also have been cool to the House's spending and tax plans, and many details about them remain under wraps. One of those items is the question of where the House will find the money to pay for what could be billions of dollars in borrowing for school construction costs in the coming years. Another item is a full slate of proposed tax increases on cigarettes and other tobacco products that House leaders are developing.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Adolph, R-Delaware, and House Democratic leaders insisted Tuesday that the budget package is properly balanced. However, they have not divulged information on how they came to that conclusion.
Further, Adolph suggested that the package of tobacco tax increases would not be made public until a broader agreement on spending had been reached between House and Senate Republicans and Democrats.
"Once they have come to an agreement with all four caucuses, then there's various funding issues on the table," Adolph said.
In addition to new tobacco taxes, the House's plan to balance the budget includes tax and fee revenue from legislation it passed Tuesday to make Pennsylvania the fourth state to allow casino-style gambling online.
Besides an overall spending increase, the House's spending plan would increase public school instruction and operations by $200 million, or about 3 percent. Wolf sought $250 million more for schools and $34 million more to bolster heroin addiction treatment programs. The House plan also adds about $20 million for heroin addiction treatment programs, officials said.
The spending increase is driven primarily by pension obligations and human services, as well as an attempt to balance a deficit that the Legislature's Independent Fiscal Office has estimated could hit $1.8 billion in the 2016-17 fiscal year.
The House plan also maintains spending levels on higher education institutions, including Penn State, which top senators criticized as inadequate. Wolf had sought a 5 percent increase to $1.7 billion.
While Wolf criticized the House's plan as out of balance, he did not say what he would support as an alternative, and the Senate's Republican majority has not proposed an alternative spending or tax plan.
Efforts to pass a budget ahead of the new fiscal year's start follow a record-breaking partisan budget stalemate in Wolf's first budget year, a deadlock that was not fully resolved until April.
In any case, House Republicans have already squeezed significant concessions from Wolf, who in February proposed a $33.3 billion spending plan - a 10 percent increase - backed by a $2.7 billion tax plan that also called for higher taxes on income, sales and Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling.
That had included a proposal to raise the per-pack cigarette tax to $2.60, from $1.60, and to extend a 40 percent wholesale tax to sales of larger cigars, loose tobacco, smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarettes. Those products are currently untaxed by Pennsylvania.
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