Yes, the Pennsylvania state budget is late.

(Audience yells) “How late is it?”

Keystone State legislators have never been beholden to the state Constitution that “requires” that the state complete its budget process no later than June 30.

ARTICLE VIII – TAXATION AND FINANCE

§ 13.  Appropriations.

(b)  The General Assembly shall adopt a capital budget for the ensuing fiscal year.

(Apr. 23, 1968, P.L.App.7, Prop. No.4)

Well, “requires” has a certain meaning in this case.

The absence of a spending plan does not automatically shutter government operations as most of the core functions continue. For example, state parks are still open to the public, prisons continue operating, and PennDOT stays in business.

And state employees continue to be paid.

Why is that? The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in a pair of 2009 cases that the state had to pay its employees who were already working, even if a budget wasn’t in place. 

But wait, there’s more.

State law also authorizes the state to pay for essential services, so called “Ledger 5 expenditures,” such as the completion of infrastructure projects already underway and payments required under federal law like unemployment compensation, Medicaid and Medicare disbursements and other federal aid programs.

And there’s still a flow of money. Although there isn’t a budget, taxes and fees are still being collected, so the state coffers continue to have liquidity that helps pay for government expenses deemed too important to stop.

Therefore, where’s the pressure point to force politicians to pass a budget? Fact. There isn’t one because there are no real impacts from not doing so.

The only folks to get hurt in the process are school districts, nonprofits, and local or county governments.

Looking back over the last decade, those groups, as well as others, have suffered the effects of a late budget eight times. In that span, this is the third-longest delay in the budget cycle, trailing just 2020-21 that was signed in late November, and 2015-16 that was approved without the governor’s signature and became law at the end of March.

Here is a 10-year history of Pennsylvania budgets from start to finish. Using figures compiled from the Commonwealth, we listed each initial budget proposal from the governor, the final enacted budget figure, and the date the governor signed the budget bill into law.