The Republican-led Pennsylvania General Assembly approved by
nearly a two-thirds majority a balanced budget for the 2015 fiscal year that
began July 1 that does not raise taxes.
The bill received bipartisan support.
It is now up to liberal Democratic Governor Tom Wolf to sign, veto or
allow the bill to become law without his signature.
The budget
impasse—the longest in Pennsylvania in 45 years—was created by Wolf’s vetoes of
previous balanced budget bills that did not raise taxes, including a stop-gap
measure, as he demanded dramatically more spending and taxes. He even opted not to exercise his line-item
veto authority to remove the provisions he opposed and sign into law the
majority of the bills he favored. Wolf,
the most liberal Governor in the American Union, refused to release funds to
schools or contracted public service agencies or to pay certain vendors or
employees in order to create a crisis to try to exert political pressure on
legislators to give into his demands.
The measure
approved by the legislature authorizes $30.3 billion in spending by the
Commonwealth, which is less than Wolf demanded, but is nonetheless a 3.7
increase, including $300 million more for schools than in the 2014 budget,
which were already receiving a record amount.
The plan lacks any much-needed
pension reform for public employees or alcohol privatization, both of which
were priorities for conservative Republican legislators. All House Democrats had voted yesterday
against a pension reform compromise that had been agreed to by Wolf and the
Senate in exchange for more taxing and spending because the minority caucus in
the lower chamber opposed shifting any future employees into even a less-costly
hybrid plan, while a majority of the GOP caucus opposed the measure because it
would have led to inadequate savings and underfunded the state pension plans
without producing any savings for the current fiscal year. Because Wolf and the legislature could not
agree on adequate pension reforms that could be supported by a majority of the
House, a majority of neither chamber of the legislature could support a tax
increase to fund Wolf’s proposed spending spree. Pension reform would be among the ways for the
Commonwealth to reduce wasteful spending to avoid future tax increases or even
to reduce taxes, as Pennsylvania
already has one of the higher burdens for personal and business taxes. Alcohol privatization would increase state
revenue through the sales of licensing and the collection of more taxes from
sales with better consumer convenience, selection and pricing.
After
agreeing to the Senate compromise, Wolf blamed the crisis he created on the
House for not giving into his demands and concurring with the Senate. But now that both legislative chambers have
approved a balanced budget that significantly increases education spending,
despite a decrease in student performance over the last few decades as state
spending on education has skyrocketed, he would be solely responsible yet again
for extending the budget impasse.
It is time Wolf recognizes that
Pennsylvanians neither need nor want to pay more in taxes for wasteful spending. Conservatives in the General Assembly have
held the line against tax increases.
With the support of conservative private citizens, may these legislators
continue to stand firm for fiscal responsibility while continuing to work for
adequate public pension reform and alcohol privatization.
Note: I am
among the state employees who have not received compensation for their public
service because of Wolf’s budget crisis.
Although it is claimed and reported that state employees have been
receiving their pay, I have not received any checks since June for one of the
two commissions I hold, as the Administration reclassified us employees
commissioned for certain additional services earlier this year as
“vendors.”
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