With the June 30th budget deadline a month away, both Democrats and Republicans in the state House believe this year’s budget process will be quick.
Governor Tom Wolf’s proposed budget calls for increases in education and elderly and disabled services as well as the severance tax on natural gas he has proposed every year and a fee for state police coverage.
The House GOP sees that education spending will likely increase, but other spending remains unclear.
“That’s where the performance-based budgeting comes in. You know, what programs are working? What isn’t?” House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin told State House Sound Bites.
House Democrats agree that the numbers will have to be looked at before completely going along with Wolf’s proposal.
“The math is the ever-present question. Last year’s budget, in our view, contained a lot of one-time fixes that will not be available this year, so everyone needs to take a look at the books and ensure that there is sufficient money on hand to pay for what we need to do in the next year,” House Democratic spokesman Bill Patton told State House Sound Bites.
With this year being an election year for Wolf, half of the state Senate and the entirety of the state House passing a budget on time will help a lot of incumbents in the fall.
State Rep. Seth Grove put it into slightly more stark terms.
“It’s an election year. My guess is, June 28th or 29th leadership drops a budget on us–it might be good–and then they’ll say, ‘Well here’s your budget, if you don’t vote for it you’re probably going to lose the election in the fall,” Grove told State House Sound Bites.
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4 Responses
Seth, use your per-diem money to buy a weight watchers subscription. We the tax payers don’t want to fund your future insulin and/or open heart procedure.
You constituents (and your Johnson) will thank you.
Seth stop calling attention to yourself. An on time state budget is important to get done. I am tired of not seeing you at the restaurant because you are in Harrisburg battling. Get it done and get back to the main course.
Isn’t your comment a little off the mark or maybe I just Seth Grove is a hard worker on Budget issues. Troubling to some (perhaps like yourself), he is also blunt, something that may be a little out of fashion just now.
As noted above, Seth Grove talks of legislators being told they got to support the budget or they may lose. Why is it that working together has suddenly become an infectious illness? Why does every budget have to be some struggle to the finish and a zero sum game with only winners and losers but no one working together??? If a legislator needs to be told in an election year that it is not good to appear to be an obstructionist, you have to wonder about their skills to hold office. It would be nice if there was more cooperation to help the people of Pennsylvania.