* The Senate acted late but responsibly to put forward a revenue plan in July that contains a modest shale gas extraction tax supported by a majority of Pennsylvanians, along with an assortment of less savory remedies, including utility tax hikes, a gambling expansion and borrowing more than $1 billion against a fund meant for tobacco-related education and health. The House, led by Speaker Mike Turzai, rejected it.
* We’d like to say House GOP leaders have been working since then to resolve differences with Senate GOP leaders, but we can’t.
* Turzai began the year with a pledge to “change the fundamentals of how we do state budgets.” But the current impasse is beginning to look depressingly familiar.
Erie Times-News: Our view: Vacation’s over, time to finish the budget
By The Editorial Board
Pennsylvania’s GOP-controlled Legislature passed a $32 billion 2017-18 spending plan on time with no opposition from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who let it lapse into law without his signature. The figure was not far off his initial proposal.
Left undone, however, was the revenue plan to cover a $2.2 billion shortfall in the budget.
The Senate acted late but responsibly to put forward a revenue plan in July that contains a modest shale gas extraction tax supported by a majority of Pennsylvanians, along with an assortment of less savory remedies, including utility tax hikes, a gambling expansion and borrowing more than $1 billion against a fund meant for tobacco-related education and health.
The House, led by Speaker Mike Turzai, rejected it.
We’d like to say House GOP leaders have been working since then to resolve differences with Senate GOP leaders, but we can’t.
House lawmakers decamped Harrisburg for a six-week vacation and are not due back officially until Sept. 11, though there have been reports that they might resume their jobs late this month.
In the meantime, the state continues to cut checks, as of Monday, with the cover of an emergency $750 million line of credit approved by state Treasurer Joe Torsella on Aug. 3.
The state’s solvency and services are not only in jeopardy, Torsella, a Democrat, warned, but also its credit rating.
This is unacceptable.
Turzai began the year with a pledge to “change the fundamentals of how we do state budgets.” But the current impasse is beginning to look depressingly familiar.
There is no hint of urgency emanating from the empty capital. Maybe that is because the Legislature will continue to be paid as the impasse drags on. That won’t be true of key state-funded institutions and services.
And taxpayers will only be burdened more if the state’s credit rating is downgraded. It will cost more to borrow.
There is little the minority Democratic caucus can do. We urge our GOP delegation to do what it can to put this shiftless process back on track.
Lawmakers approved a spending plan. They must have the guts to fund it responsibly without resorting to gimmicks, borrowing or turning the state into one big casino. That means substantial, recurring revenue that ends the habit of kicking the can down the road.
We have said the shale tax has merit. And the Senate’s proposal to extend the state sales tax to online purchases should be a given in these times when so many buy so much online.
At this late stage, this process should not be an ideological exercise, but a practical one. The cost of inaction is too high to Pennsylvanians and the state’s good standing. Get back to work.
Read the editorial here.