State budget needs a push to finish line

Make a new education funding formula permanent? Check!

Increase funding for education? Check!

Buy a bottle of wine at the supermarket? Check!

At least attempt to start the process of tackling the massive deficit in public pensions? Check. Pay for it all? Uh, not so fast. Maybe Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Legislature just couldn’t help themselves.

Last year both sides dug in their heels and dragged the state through a torturous ninemonth budget standoff that hurt people, created cuts in social services, and made the state something of a national joke.

This year, amid a much more positive atmosphere in Harrisburg, they did what many doubted they could. They delivered an on-time budget that did not increase the state’s personal income or sales taxes.

But their work is not done. Now they have to figure out a way to pay for it.

Gov. Wolf indicated he would sign the budget plan, which was dropped on his desk after passage by both the House and Senate by the July 1 deadline, but only after he saw a funding plan to pay for everything in his spending plan.

Both sides were huddled behind closed doors in the capital last week. So far they’ve been unable to cut a deal.

The clock — yes that same one that always seems to be ticking in Harrisburg — is ticking down toward a midnight Monday deadline to put in place a funding plan to pay for the state’s $31.5 billion spending plan in place.

Without that accord, the ball goes back into Wolf’s court. The governor will have to decide if he wants to veto all of it, or some parts of it.

House Republicans have fallen back on a very familiar gambit — if you’ll excuse the phrase — to pay the tab. They’re proposing one more expansion in the state’s voracious appetite for legalized gambling. In particular, they want to allow online gaming, something that has not exactly thrilled the folks down at Harrah’s in Chester, nor any of the state’s other legal gambling meccas.

County and city of Chester officials also have protested, saying online gambling could jeopardize the tax relief they derive from Harrah’s casino operations.

The GOP turned to the online gambling avenue after once again rejecting out of hand Wolf’s calls — for the second time in as many budget seasons — for increases in the state sales and personal income taxes.

The governor does not come away from all this emptyhanded, however. He is getting a $200 million boost in education funding, something he has been pushing for since taking office.

But he remains adamant he will not sign any budget plan until he sees the funding mechanisms.

Still being bandied about is another longtime potential tax target, the state’s natural gas business. That also faces Republican opposition in the House.

And, of course, when all else fails, you can always count on our elected officials to stick it to smokers whenever possible. Yes, another possible source of funding is still one more uptick in tobacco taxes.

Technically, both sides can claim they fulfilled their mission of avoiding another budget standoff and delivering a spending plan by the July 1 deadline.

Technically, unfortunately, doesn’t pay the bills. The state is staring at a deficit that has ballooned over $1 billion.

We were pleasantly surprised at the turnabout in the tenor of discussions in Harrisburg this go-round. After last year’s budget debacle, it appeared both sides had learned a valuable lesson.

Now it’s time for both sides to finish their job as well.

Technically, both sides can claim they fulfilled their mission of avoiding another budget standoff and delivering a spending plan by the July 1 deadline. Technically, unfortunately, doesn’t pay the bills.