Pa. Senate passes budget bill

The spending bill has already passed the Republican-controlled Senate.

Democrats in the House all voted against the pension bill but then complained that House Republicans failed to pass it and were holding up the overall budget. A number of them would be made permanent, including those for business research and development, small business expenses, individual deductions for state and local sales taxes, and financing rules for multinational corporations.

How will lawmakers vote to pay for the budget’s six percent spending increase over a year ago?

Almost 20 Republicans joined with Democrats Tuesday afternoon in a preliminary vote to support the proposal backed by the Senate and Governor Tom Wolf.

The state Senate on Wednesday passed a state budget bill it had previously opposed and it will land on Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk before Christmas pending a signature Thursday from the speaker of the House.

And now the governor has the budget. Leaders of the Senate Republican majority had tied its passage to their support for a $30.8 billion spending plan, a 6 percent increase, and the $1 billion-plus tax increase.

“It’s been quite a day”, said state Rep. Kate Klunk, R-Hanover.

“I want to know how many of those legislators who said they wouldn’t take their paychecks until the budget was done have taken them?” she said.

“We like to think that this is an honorable institution”, McGinnis said. “It’s very disturbing. The votes are there”. They said little after they left a meeting with leaders of the Senate’s Republican majority.

“That’s kind of the equivalent of taking your marbles and going home”, he said.

Schools and state government will have to keep raising taxes without pension reforms, said Rep. Kate Harper, R-Montgomery. “It’s appropriate that “Star Wars” debuted this week because this is like a science-fiction movie”.

With billions in state aid held up, cash-strapped school districts are getting slapped with potentially crippling credit downgrades, social service agencies are laying off workers and state-subsidized prekindergarten programs are closing to hundreds of children in low-income families. Domestic violence shelters are filled to capacity and several school districts have raised the idea of staying closed after the winter break to avoid having to borrow more money. The only two things in the constitution for them to do is to provide a thorough and efficient education for students in Pennsylvania and pass a budget each year.

Republicans have also been in talks with each other, their Democratic counterparts and with Wolf, a Democrat overseeing his first state budget.

The tax legislation has not been introduced in or passed either chamber, and it remains unclear what, exactly, it would include.

Jeffrey Sheridan, spokesman for Mr. Wolf, announced the governor’s intention to veto a partial-year budget in a written statement.

The pension bill remained stalled in the House, amid lobbying by anti-tax groups to vote against it as a proxy defeat of the wider spending and tax plan. The House Republicans agreed to.

The legislation would create a mandatory 401(k)-style benefit for state government and public school employees hired in the future.