In March, Gov. Wolf presented his budget to the Republicans in the General Assembly. Knowing they would present objections and alternate approaches, the governor made numerous overtures to the Republican leaders in an effort to engage them in fruitful negotiations.
In March, Gov. Wolf presented his budget to the Republicans in the General Assembly. Knowing they would present objections and alternate approaches, the governor made numerous overtures to the Republican leaders in an effort to engage them in fruitful negotiations.
At one point, Gov. Wolf offered a substantive compromise on his severance tax proposal, but Republicans refused to negotiate. “Our counterproposal was nothing,” Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati said. “Yeah, nothing,” he repeated. That’s a big ZERO.
Instead, House and Senate Republican leaders negotiated with themselves behind closed doors in backrooms and produced a budget that involved ZERO engagement with the governor.
The budget Republicans cooked up has ZERO property tax relief and an almost ZERO increase in education funding – even though property tax relief and increased education funding are the highest priorities of the voters who sent them to Harrisburg. The budget also maintains Pennsylvania’s status as the only major gas-producing state that has a ZERO severance tax on drillers.
Gov. Wolf has said he will veto this budget that was created without his input if it ignores his stated priorities of increased education funding, property tax relief and a severance tax on drillers.
House and Senate leaders are betting that their cynical antics will be well-received by a public that will blame the governor for the budget impasse. Early indications are that their gamble is backfiring. The Philadelphia Daily News observes that it’s “tough to bargain with GOP lawmakers living in fantasyland,” and a reporter for the Pottstown Mercury muses in his blog that “this is why everybody hates Harrisburg.”
The Republicans apparently will get their wish of passing an on-time budget that raises ZERO taxes – not even on gas drillers. But they should remember the old caution, “be careful what you wish for.” After all, voters are wishing for more money for their schools, property tax relief and a tax on the gas drillers, and the Republican budget scores ZERO on all of these.