Governor takes fresh approach to budget

Gov. Tom Wolf delivered his annual budget address this week.

Did somebody put something in the water in Harrisburg?

Gov. Tom Wolf delivered his annual budget address this week — and Republicans actually had nice things to say about it.For years Wolf has been advocating big increases in spending — and a variety of tax hikes to pay for it.

At one point, Wolf even tinkered with the “third rail” of Harrisburg, suggesting increasing both the state sales and income taxes to pay for his central policy mission — a big increase in education spending. Republicans who had vowed not to increase taxes almost laughed themselves silly.

Last winter, with a re-election bid looming on the horizon, Wolf seemed to back away from any outrageous education or tax proposals. Not surprisingly the budget process sailed through, the antithesis of what took place in his first three years.

Now, no longer shackled by the thought of having to run for office again, those thinking that the governor would fall back into old habits were sorely mistaken.

Yes, Wolf wants to increase education funding, along with hiking the minimum wage. But he is not calling for a tax hike to do it.

The Wolf spending plan calls for a bottom line of slightly more than $34 billion, including $1.9 billion in new spending.

He wants to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour on July 1 — up from the current federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.

But he is not seeking increases in either the state sales or income tax to fund it. He did fall back on an old standby, one he hinted at last week, in again seeking a severance tax on the state’s natural gas industry. But this time, perhaps as a way of making it more digestible for Republicans, he’s pitching it as a way of funding a much-needed program to target the state’s crumbling infrastructure.

Wolf did not specifically include the call for a severance tax in his budget plan, but it will be part of the debate on state spending.

Wolf used an ironic scheduling quirk to point out the differences between what is taking place in the state Capitol, and the actions about 150 miles south in Washington, D.C. After the nearly monthlong federal government shutdown, President Trump delivered his delayed State of the Union address hours after Wolf stood at the podium in Harrisburg.

“While the rest of the country — and indeed the rest of the world — descends into divisive, nasty and unproductive bouts of shouting, we are showing everyone else, right here in the heart of democracy, how democracy is supposed to work.”

Almost as important as Wolf’s speech was what happened afterward, the sound of Republicans for the most part sounding a positive note.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati said he was “pleased” with Wolf’s budget plan, in particular a call for reducing the state’s 9.99 percent corporate income tax.

House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler went so far as to call the plan “a series of ideas I believe House Republicans can find agreement on. There’s a lot there we can support … at least generically.”

House Speaker Mike Turzai, perhaps the Legislature’s foremost anti-tax voice, called Wolf’s approach a positive.

The Wolf budget calls for another $449 million in funding for pre-K through 12th grade education, along with an extra $50 million for special education and $7 million more for the 14 state universities.

There is good news for teachers as well, with a call for a $45,000 minimum salary for public school teachers, up from the current atrocious $18,500.

There are also a couple of important policy shifts on education, including dropping the age where attendance is compulsory from 8 to 6, and hiking the threshold for dropping out of school from 17 to 18.

Make no mistake, the state still faces large money problems. Part of the foundation of Wolf’s spending increase is that it is banking on the taxes withheld from those higher minimum wages.

All of that lies ahead, with the June 30 deadline still in place.

But for now, the tone set in Harrisburg certainly sounds different. Now it’s up to lawmakers to make it add up.