Pa. lawmakers reconvene, but budget unclear

HARRISBURG >> Pennsylvania legislators convened brief ly Tuesday for the first time since state budget negotiations collapsed just before Christmas, but partisan differences over spending and taxation blocked any clear path to ending a stalemate now in its seventh month.

Legislative leaders fulfilled a constitutional requirement for the Legislature to meet on the first Tuesday in January, but neither chamber transacted any business during the ceremonial sessions and no formal talks are scheduled.

The full House is to convene next week and the Senate in the following week.

Still, with Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf slated to deliver his 2016-17 budget address Feb. 9, the budget mess was the main topic of discussion among party leaders.

Last week, Wolf vetoed parts of a $30.3 bil- lion budget penned by House Republican leaders who broke away from a broader compromise that they had helped negotiate with Wolf and Senate leaders. The bill, sent to Wolf’s desk as lawmakers broke for the holidays, was similar to a measure he had vetoed in June.

The governor released more than $23 billion, including overdue payments to the 500 school districts as well as socialservice agencies across the state. But he harshly criticized Republican leaders for not passing the more ambitious bipartisan budget, which contained about $500 million more than the House plan to cover additional money for schools and deficit reduction but also called for a $1 billionplus tax increase.

The $30.8 billion bipartisan budget would increase state spending by a record 6 percent. The House GOP proposal, which would require a smaller tax increa se, would boost spending by about 4.5 percent.