HARRISBURG – Marc Stier, director of the PA Budget and Policy Center, made the following statement on the passage of the House GOP revenue plan:
“After a long debate that was mainly remarkable for the failure of House Republicans to adequately explain or defend their proposal to transfer $600 million from special funds into the General Fund, the Pennsylvania House of Representative enacted a revenue plan that (1) includes zero recurring revenues, which means that the next fiscal year will begin with a deficit of over $1 billion, (2) is fundamentally unbalanced in that it includes many proposals that are unlikely to raise the revenues expected, including proposals that have been included in previous budgets but have never gone into effect, and (3) is a stealth cut in government spending on critical programs in public transportation, public safety, environmental protection and agriculture, small business, economic development, and other areas that are supported by the special funds the House has raided.
“We expect both Senate Republicans and Democrats to rapidly reject this extremist, unbalanced, proposal.
“The only good that comes out of today’s action is that the House has finally acted on some legislation to fund the budget, and this perhaps means they are ready to engage in serious negotiations among all four legislative caucuses and Governor Wolf that can finally result in a complete budget for fiscal year 2017-2018.”