No more time for rancor in Harrisburg

The state Legislature has work to do on mail-in voting and budget measures and not much time to do it.

As Pennsylvania legislators begin returning to work, our state’s leaders have some serious work to do and not much time to get it done.

Issues such as revising the mail-in voting law and coming up with a budget agreement won’t allow for the usual glacial pace of decision-making in Harrisburg. The election is just three months away, and much of the short-term budget passed back in the spring expires at the end of November.

None of this will be easy, either. The election debate takes place in the midst of a debate over mail-in voting that’s very much influenced by a bitter presidential election campaign. And the state faces the loss of billions of dollars in revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout.

Even under the best of circumstances, the wheels of Pennsylvania government tend to grind quite a bit. Now major decisions must be made at a moment when the relationship between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican lawmakers is at a low point.

These parties have been at odds before, of course. But what we’ve seen the last few months is even worse. The directives issued by Wolf’s administration in response to the coronavirus have infuriated many Republican lawmakers. Members of the Legislature believe they should be involved in the process of deciding how to steer Pennsylvania through the pandemic.

GOP lawmakers have called for the governor’s impeachment and labeled him a dictator for making so many momentous decisions unilaterally. Wolf, for his part, hasn’t shied away from firing back at his critics.

This is the contentious atmosphere in which Pennsylvania’s leaders will have to make some extremely difficult decisions that will demand compromise. We urge all involved to put the rancor aside for now and focus on getting something accomplished.

First on the list is the election. It’s remarkable to think that within the past year Pennsylvania leaders reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill allowing no-excuse mailin voting in the state. The idea wasn’t terribly controversial a year or so ago, but things have changed considerably since then.

Pennsylvania is tremendously fortunate to have a system for mail-in voting in place during this pandemic election. But some changes are needed in order for it to work properly in an election when far more people are likely to vote by mail than anyone would have envisioned when the law was written.

First and foremost, lawmakers must allow the ballots to go out earlier than planned so voters can return them well before Election Day and diminish the risk of them not arriving on time due to mail problems. It’s also imperative that county elections officials be allowed to start processing mail-in ballots well before Election Day to avoid a long delay in announcing results. And counties should be granted flexibility in their use of poll workers to ensure it’s done as efficiently as possible.

The good news is that there’s at least some agreement between Wolf and GOP lawmakers on this issue. They need to work out any differences quickly as the election swiftly approaches. Ensuring that people are able to vote safely and have their ballot counted is not a political issue. Pennsylvania’s leaders should not treat it as one.

As for the state’s fiscal issues, the time to start negotiating is now. We’d advise Wolf to put aside his proposal to legalize marijuana as a means of increasing revenue for the state. While we do believe changes to the law are warranted, there’s not sufficient support in the General Assembly to get it done. There are also serious questions about just how much money it could be expected to raise.

The state has just about run out of other sins to tax, so addressing this problem is going to require more difficult decisions on reducing expenses and raising revenue. Lawmakers must enter this process ready to compromise.

And we haven’t even mentioned a long list of other issues related to the impact of COVID-19 that will demand Harrisburg’s attention.

It’s time to put hard feelings behind and get to work.