With last year's state budget still not done, now 9 months late, Gov. Wolf will propose his next budget and present it to the legislature this month. This editorial from PennLive pretty much spells out the sentiment of most Pennsylvanians regard the budget impasse and our legislative inability to do virtually anything.


With second budget address, Wolf, lawmakers must do better: Editorial

Gov. Tom Wolf shouldn't be at a loss for opening lines Tuesday as he unveils his 2016-17 budget proposal to a joint session of the state House and Senate:

"Stop me if you've heard this one" perhaps, or, "A funny thing happened on the way to this year's budget."

Yes, we're laughing to keep from crying.

In reality, there's very little funny about a state government that cannot accomplish its one overarching responsibility: Enacting a budget.

As the governor outlines his second state spending plan Tuesday, his first budget blueprint lies in tatters, a symbol not of effective government but legislative failure.

It's all a little awkward. And very unnecessary.

What should have been a cooperative effort at meeting the needs of state residents through political compromise quickly devolved – and, worse, calcified – into a stubborn standoff between a new Democratic governor and an expanded Republican legislative majority.

Five things we know about Gov. Tom Wolf's second-year budget

With his Year One budget still incomplete, Pennsylvanians can expect Gov. Tom Wolf to advocate the need for fixing the structural deficit – the gap between recurring expenses and available revenues – with sustainable revenue sources and more funding for education.


Wolf and the Legislature must do better and they can start Tuesday.
Both came out of the 2014 election claiming electoral mandates. There's not much they can claim since then, certainly in terms of legislative accomplishments.

So there is more than a little discomfort in today's ceremonies. State residents cannot be blamed for wondering why they shouldn't think the entire event is little more than political theater, a charade that has scant chance of leading to responsible budgeting in Pennsylvania.

Once bitten, as they say.

To answer those concerns, when Wolf outlines his fiscal vision today, he would do well to spell out not only how much he wants to spend and what he wants to spend it on, but how he plans to work with the opposition to ensure that some version of his spending plan some day becomes reality.

Republican leaders share that onus.

After The Year Without a Budget, the public is not interested in hearing where the two sides differ.

That's well known. Where, and how, can they agree? And when?

Because, frankly, state residents – especially those dependent on competent state budgeting to plan their own spending – are growing frustrated.

"I'm disappointed in our elected officials, and I feel like a hostage," Michele Orner, superintendent of the Halifax Area School District, told PennLive/The Patriot-News' Charles Thompson.

Bracing for the budget: Pennsylvanians wonder if we're headed for Wolf War II?


Orner is being charitable.

Like the rest of Pennsylvania's public school leaders, she is now trying to devise a 2016-17 spending plan before state aid for 2015-16 has been finalized. Rather than disappointed, she has a right to be mad.

There was at least one important crack in the deep freeze that was the ongoing budget standoff: A partial spending plan was finally put in place at year's end. But it left too many important areas incompletely funded: state aid to public schools, the Agriculture and Corrections departments, and legislative operations, for example.

Too little, too late and too bad for those agencies that were left out.

Wolf and the Legislature must do better and they can start Tuesday.

Yes, fiscal planning is important, so Wolf's address will offer key direction and a starting point for discussion.

And yes, the two parties are not going to agree on every spending priority or revenue enhancement, so difficult compromise and tradeoffs will be essential.

But enough with the stalemate. The two sides must pledge today to begin the work of ending the dysfunction that has not only led to the longest state budget impasse in modern history but has ground other major legislative initiatives to a stuck-in-line halt.

Pennsylvanians need to hear Tuesday that, despite their differences, state leaders recognize the need to reach consensus on not only next year's but this year's final spending plans. And how.


http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2016/02/with_new_budget_address_wolf_l.html

Last edited by Rongone (2/08/2016 1:05 pm)