State budget leaves work unfinished

The $34 billion budget was passed on time and did not include a tax hike.

The July 4th holiday is in the rear-view mirror; the bulk of the summer awaits. Dog days, as it were. Harrisburg is a ghost town. Our elected representatives have fled the capital, headed for the beach or other locales in one of their many off periods. They won’t be back until September. Remember, these supposedly are full-time jobs, with gold-plated full-time benefits. Our elected representatives will spend a grand total of about two dozen days in session between now and the end of the year. Nice work if you can get it.

But the government is not shut down. That is a good thing. That is because, as expected, Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican leaders in the House and Senate signed off on a $34 billion budget that was passed on time and did not include a tax hike.

Without question the best aspect of this budget is an issue Wolf has championed since leaving his York business to seek the governor’s mansion five years ago. The budget invests more than $300 million in education.

But even that accomplishment comes with an asterisk. The new funding is constrained by the old funding formula. Several years ago, the Legislature passed a recommendation by a blue ribbon panel for a Fair Funding Formula, which would redistribute education funding in a way that targets need. Those districts with the most need get the most funding.

The problem is that the Fair Funding Formula only applies to new funding.

So while the gains the governor won in education funding will be more equitably distributed, the vast majority of funding is still doled out under the old formula, one that creates an unfair playing field for too many districts, penalizing kids for no other reason than their zip code.

Then there is the relative health of the state’s finances. Boosted by a spike in tax revenue, Republicans were successful in stashing much of this new revenue, $300 million, in the state’s budgetary reserve.

Wolf’s other major legislative objectives are nowhere to be found in this spending plan.

Minimum wage? Forget it. Despite the fact that Pennsylvania is one of the only northeastern states that still features the federal mandated $7.25 opening wage, Republicans in the House and Senate would not back a boost. Several had voiced early support for Wolf’s plan to boost wages gradually, starting at $12 an hour and then tacking on yearly increases until it hit $15 an hour.

The governor spent much of the past few months crisscrossing the state touting a major infrastructure plan called RestorePa. The governor suggested spending $4.5 billion — raised by his old reliable fallback, a severance tax on natural gas — to fix the state’s crumbling roads and bridges, and address serious stormwater problems. Don’t look for it in this spending plan. It didn’t make the cut.

One thing that did get done was a Republican push to again eliminate a $200 monthly general assistance stipend. It was used by some of the state’s neediest citizens for basic commodities such as soap, toothpaste and other personal hygiene items, and some transportation issues.

The heated debate on the issue was capped by the image of state Sen. Katie Muth, D-Montgomery, attempting to read a letter from a constituent while Senate Republican Majority Leader Jake Corman thundered away in the background, demanding Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, presiding over the Senate, follow Senate rules and shut down the debate.

It was not a good look, but one that went viral and earned the state some national publicity.

That single scene might have been the defining moment of this last session of the Legislature.

Last November, Democrats — in particular those here in the southeast corner of the state — made serious inroads into Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

Several high-profile Republican incumbents were shown the door, while Wolf and fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Robert Casey sailed to easy wins.

We don’t begrudge our elected representatives some down time or a nice vacation.

But we lament the paucity of days when they actually will be doing the public’s business, especially when there is so much work left to do.

This budget only reinforces that idea.