Lawmakers approve state budget

But they haven’t decided how to pay for it

HARRISBURG — With hours to spare before the midnight deadline, the Republican-controlled Legislature on Friday approved a new budget for Pennsylvania, but one missing a critical piece: a plan for how to pay for it.

The state House and Senate each overwhelmingly passed a nearly $32 billion spending bill that would increase funding for public schools, early childhood and special education, and services for the intellectually disabled.

Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, has praised the spending plan, calling it “a bipartisan compromise that invests more in our schools, protects seniors, creates jobs, and builds on our fight to end the heroin epidemic.”

Still, the governor has not indicated whether he will sign it before a revenue package arrives on his desk. Mr. Wolf’s spokesman would say only that the governor expects to be able to act on a complete budget package.

The governor has 10 days to sign the spending bill once it reaches his desk, giving the Legislature an extension of sorts — albeit a short one — to strike a deal on how to fund it.

Though legislative leaders have

said they will work over the weekend to finalize details for a revenue plan, the Senate is not expected to be in session. House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Marshall, told his chamber after the vote that the House will likely not convene again before Thursday.

The $31.99 billion spending plan would increase funding for K-12 education by $100 million — the amount Mr. Wolf proposed earlier this year.

It would also increase special education by $25 million, and give an additional $30 million for early childhood education Funding for state-related universities such as Temple, Lincoln and Pitt would remain flat, whereas the Legislature gave itself a budget increase of nearly 5 percent.

The spending bill also includes plans to merge the Departments of Health and Human Services, and likely the Corrections Department and the Board of Probation and Parole as well.

Speaking on the Senate floor Friday, Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, urged his colleagues to support the spending plan.

“This budget’s not perfect, and it’s certainly easy to find reasons to vote no, like any budget,” he said. “But like any good budget, it’s a compromise, it deals with how we get to tomorrow. But this legislature’s doing it in a way that looks down the road as well, and I think it’s a budget that is very worthy of support.”

Sen. Vincent Hughes, D Philadelphia, said the spending plan is not all that is needed to address problems in Pennsylvania communities, but he called it “a step forward.”

“We balanced out the governor’s proposal, which was austere, with the proposal that came out of the House, which we believe was draconian, to something that is moderate and modest but does move the commonwealth forward,” Mr. Hughes said.

Sen. Scott Wagner, R York, who voted against the bill, said government should not be making spending decisions until it knows exactly howmuch money it will have inhand to pay for it.

“We have a monster here in Harrisburg,” Mr. Wagner, a fiscal conservative who is running for governor, said of state government during Friday’s debate. “And every year, the monster is hungrier … and every year, we keep feeding the monster.”

He and others signaled that the hard work has yet to come.

Next week, Mr. Wolf and the two chambers will need to figure out how to raise more than $2 billion to cover a projected shortfall in the fiscal year that just ended and theone that starts Saturday.

Negotiators have been haggling for weeks on this very question. Republicans who control both chambers have repeatedly rejected Mr. Wolf’s proposals over the last three years to raise the personal income or sales tax, or impose a new tax on natural gas extraction. But they have struggled to cobble together other ways to raise a substantial amount of money.

This year, they are once again discussing expanding gambling in Pennsylvania, including legalizing online gambling. But that plan has been bogged down by fighting over whether to allow up to 40,000 video gaming terminals — essentially, slots-like machines — in bars and other establishments with a liquor license.

Senate Republicans — and Mr. Wolf — have also said there are serious discussions around the concept of borrowing to pay for a portion or all of this year’s budget shortfall.

House Republicans have studiously avoided saying whether they support that idea.

Angela Couloumbis: acouloumbis@phillynews.com. Karen Langley: klangley@post-gazette.com