Wolf gets budget bill, but not the one he wanted

“There’s no place like the governor’s desk”, our protagonist might be saying, clicking its ink-red heels without result.

But House GOP leaders say they won’t vote on a spending proposal without the tax plan to pay for it, and top lawmakers have not unveiled any such agreement.

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.

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

He also praised his colleagues for passing a multiyear highway funding bill and another to replace No Child Left Behind, a 2002 law that had given the federal government a greater role in K-12 education. It seems that the Republican legislature is intent on continuing the Harrisburg status quo and getting out of town to go on vacation instead of continuing the hard work to move Pennsylvania forward.

It is one of several pieces of enabling legislation that essentially serve as the instructional manual for spending the money included in the General Fund budget bill.

Pashinski said that more than a month ago Wolf, along with the Senate Democrats and Republicans and House Democrats and Republicans, agreed to a budget framework that would provide an additional $350 million dollars in education, increase funding for human service providers, begin to eliminate the debt and move Pennsylvania in the right direction. No talks were scheduled heading into the Christmas holiday.

Still, Ryan got support from more than the 79 Republicans who voted for a two-year budget plan the day before he became speaker.

Senate Republicans prefer an increase in the sales tax, 6 percent to 6.5 percent, and no bill had been made public Wednesday morning.

“It’s a significant tax relief measure and of course you know how Republicans like to cut taxes”, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told The Associated Press.

“It is important that we all recognize the devastating consequences of this stopgap budget if it were enacted”, Wolf said in the letter. “What is happening in Pennsylvania is nobody is in charge”.

Supporters of the spending plan successfully maneuvered it Tuesday through a series of razor-thin votes and a floor challenge to insist that members vote in person, rather than by proxy from afar.

“I think there are a lot of other things in question…We still don’t have a pension bill…We still haven’t seen a tax package from the Senate or from the administration”, Mr. Reed said.

So, the Senate voted 33 to 17 in favor of the Republican House budget.

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

But Miskin did acknowledge that the exchange – which was verified by PennLive – underscores the level of frustration felt among rank-and-file House members as this year’s seemingly interminable budget debate drags onward.

“This bill is not going anywhere”, he said.