Wolf prepares to talk budget as stalemate nears 100-day mark

Wolf has sought a multibillion-dollar tax increase that he says is necessary to wipe out the GOP’s funding cuts for schools and human services enacted under his Republican predecessor, Tom Corbett, and to eliminate a long-term budget deficit.

Wolf decided not to propose any increase in Pennsylvania sales tax rate, now 6 percent in much of the state, nor is he seeking an expansion of the list of items the sale tax covers.

Republican leaders have offered to hold a vote as a way to demonstrate that the governor’s proposal for higher taxes lacks sufficient support in the Legislature, where Wolf’s Democratic allies are in the minority in both chambers.

The state government budget impasse will reach 100 days later this week. CAP will keep a close eye on the votes – including amendments – and score support for individual taxes negatively, Executive Director Leo Knepper said. The GOP-controlled Senate would vote next week if the plan passes the House. But that plan’s use of more than $1.5 billion in stopgaps would have deepened the deficit, given short shrift to public schools and allowed the natural gas industry to escape paying a severance tax, Wolf has argued.

Wolf’s budget had become the objective straightaway when its prologue in March, particularly on account of the new incomes he planned via a higher taxes level, higher tax speed that will correspond to more inventory, a brand new tooth removal place a burden on on lng drilling and bigger levies on organizations and tobacco. “But I will continue to fight for what I think Pennsylvania deserves, and that is an honest approach to this budget”. Mike Schlossberg and Pete Schweyer said they would support the governor to help restore 400 teaching jobs the Allentown School District shed in the last four years.

Negotiators had a hard time Monday assessing whether the tax relief angle would actually win converts to Wolf’s controversial tax plan, which must be formally filed by Tuesday afternoon to get a floor vote on Wednesday.

“I am not trying to do anything other than show you what I believe to be the truth in terms of the mathematics of this budget”, Wolf said.

Top Republican lawmakers say that most Pennsylvanians can not afford a tax increase of that size and that there is no support among the GOP ranks for an increase in the income or sales tax.

Though the 2014-15 fiscal year ended $274 million in the black, its “smoke-and-mirrors” budget relied on over $2 billion in one-time, unsustainable sources, the businessman-turned-Governor explained. Wolf also declined to say if he would drop his call for income and sales tax changes if he loses.

Wolf conceded that he is very concerned about whether he has the Democratic votes, let alone the Republican votes, to see through a budget he wants.

Spokesman Steve Miskin said that as of now House Republicans are planning to vote Wednesday on a version of the Wolf tax package that Republicans distributed to reporters last week.

Republicans passed liquor privatization without Democratic votes, and Wolf vetoed it. The same thing happened to a GOP bill to cut public-sector pensions. “If they can do that with integrity and honesty in another way then I’ll give this up”. Doing nothing now will mean cutting state programs and increasing property taxes, and likely will lead to credit downgrades for the state, he said.