State Budget Deal Crumbles In Saturday Vote, Lawmakers Warn of Layoffs

State government has been operating without a budget since June 30, and the pressure is mounting on lawmakers and Wolf to get a deal completed by early January.

The House Rules Committee was scheduled to meet today at 11 a.m., with a floor vote possible Tuesday.

The shift came a day after the Republican-controlled House had proposed its own temporary budget despite Wolf’s vow to veto that plan if it ever reached his desk. “Pennsylvania remains without a budget”.

A sense of optimism that state officials could finally produce a budget had dissolved Saturday, when House Democrats and numerous Republicans joined forces to topple a pension bill that was part of an agreement among legislators and the administration.

In November, Wolf and House and Senate leaders agreed to a budget deal that revolved around the 6 percent spending increase and $1 billion-plus tax increase.

Wolf’s office says it has enough support from House Democrats and a divided Republican majority to pass a $1 billion-plus tax increase he’s backing to deliver a record increase in public school aid and money to close a long-term budget deficit.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, expressed concern at the lack of an agreement.

“They’ve got to pass something before we can react to it”, Corman said. “This is unacceptable for leadership to think that a stop-gap budget – when the new budget will be presented in February, no less – will absolve them of their responsibilities”.

In an email sent a few hours later, Cox muses on whether the House can send Wolf two versions of what’s known as the “fiscal code” bill -one providing funding for the General Assembly, the second for the rest of state government.

But House Republicans revolted. Moments later, the stopgap proposal was abandoned in favor of the full spending plan by a vote of 100-99. Legislative sources had expressed hope that Wolf would line-item veto the budget, to allow funds for schools and social services to begin flowing.

The House of Representatives defied Republican majority leaders Tuesday and narrowly sent a bipartisan spending bill over a key procedural hurdle.

He said he was told by republicans that democratic votes were not necessary to push it through.

The legislation has already passed the Senate, as previously reported by Healthcare Dive, and will engage a veto scenario with President Obama – who has 10 days to veto it after it’s passed.

The tax-extension measure passed by the House Thursday would also make permanent an enhanced child tax credit and the earned income tax credit, both Democratic priorities, as well as tax breaks for charitable giving and schoolteachers’ expenses. There was, she said, “a little more willingness to clean out the barn, get it going, and put these behind them to focus on 2016”.