7/19/17
by News Department on 07/19/17Budget stalemate...
Efforts to end Pennsylvania's 18-day stalemate over how to pay for a $32 billion budget took an unexpected turn Tuesday when House Republican leaders abruptly retreated from discussions over raising taxes to help fix the state government's finances.
The new stance left Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf further away from an agreement to settle his third budget now facing the prospect of having to set at least $1.5 billion aside to balance the budget bill he let become law last week.
Still hung up in the Legislature are measures carrying about $600 million in aid to Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple and Lincoln universities and the University of Pennsylvania's veterinary school.
The House GOP also advanced legislation last week that would require the Wolf administration to seek federal approval to impose new limitations on Medicaid benefits.
Wolf has viewed a tax increase as being necessary to avoid a downgrade to Pennsylvania's poor credit rating. One element of that is slapping a new tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas production. Other taxes discussed included those on basic cable service, movie tickets, bank profits, natural gas utility service, electric utility service and telephone service.
The House was not in session this week, and Senate Republicans sent the rank-and-file home Tuesday without any budget-related floor votes this week.
