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Reader Poll: Will the Budget Pass on Time?

pa-state-capitol-b175d9a07740ecf3Time is running out.

The fiscal year ends on June 30th and the legislature must pass, and the Governor must sign, a budget by then.

Last week, State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi suggested that the government would miss the deadline and have to work into July.

The problem is complex, but basically comes down to the fact that Pennsylvania has a balanced budget amendment, but the state is currently about a billion dollars short on revenue. Before Gov. Corbett will consider any new taxes, however, he wants action taken on pension reform and liquor privatization. Not to mention other contentious issues that could come up like a severance tax on natural gas drilling or the Medicaid expansion.

Altogether, the scene is reminiscent of last year, when a budget was only passed just hours before the deadline. This time, though, it’s an election year and everything will likely be harder.

So, given where everything currently stands we decided to ask our readers this question: Will we miss the June 30th budget deadline?

Will We Meet the June 30th Budget Deadline?


  • No (79%)
  • Yes (21%)

Total Voters: 475

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8 Responses

  1. Those who are advocating Liquor privatization as a solution are being as short-sighted as you are wrong-headed. It’s one time hit that will equal a long term loss. The state stores are revenue generators for the Commonwealth year after year. We will realize a one time revenue injection, but then lose money in the long run. Plus, the employees make good, family sustaining wages, which is good for their local economies and the economy of the state as a whole. Privatization is just the wrong way to go. Even the Senate Rs see that. And they don’t seem particularly keen on doing anything to help out Tom Corbett’s ridiculous agenda. His wrong headed policies got him into this miss which in turn led to absurdly low polling numbers and they don’t want to go down with him.

  2. Corbett and Zogby’s $4.2 billion deficit is a complete fiction. Corbett’s own budget proposals from 2011 show that the final Rendell budget left a $1.072 billion surplus (more than Corbett’s education cuts) and Corbett’s FY2011-2012 budget had a surplus of $659 million but the state lost $400 million in revenue from the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax rollback, which adds up to $1.059 billion (also more than Corbett’s education cuts). If you throw in a reasonable severance tax, the surpluses would have been even bigger and many of the cuts unnecessary.

    Again, I’ll reiterate – these are the Corbett Administration’s own numbers. According to Corbett’s own math, Rendell left a surplus, not a deficit. Which just goes to show, you shouldn’t take your numbers from a political advertisement.

  3. Corbett did a good job. Some Republicans have blocked reforms in pension and jack it worse keeping liquor union monopoly . The bad republican (probably 11 max) screw the citizens to keep the union fat and just keep to raise taxes. Some of the few Republicans want a democrat Governor so they can jack taxes like the some republicans jacked taxes under Gov Rendell

  4. Thankfully, this will be the last time, that, the inept Corbett administration will have to cobble a budget together and take care of all of it’s political cronies at the expense of Pennsylvanians.
    Corbett has been a disaster for the state and his inept handling of its’ fiscal affairs just shows you he is not up to the job.
    The pension crisis all goes back about 15 years ago when Ridge was in office and he outsourced management of the pension fund investments to an out of state investment firm. What did they do? Put it in investments that brought them the highest commissions. The results were disastrous! the pension fund lost $20 BILLION OF IT’S PRINCIPLE! VANISHED INTO THIN AIR! That kind of money can never be recovered. That my friend is the root of the pension crisis. The idiots in state government expecting unrealistic returns on “investing” the money. Corbett’s administration expected a 7.5% return on pension money this year! Good luck with THAT! Heck, banks are not even giving savers 1% on their money!

  5. Nice to hear from the Republican Echo Chamber of Commerce. And now a word from Reality: Tommie wants to privatize, which will COST us millions in revenue? Nice timing, Cor-boy! Know what would fix the budget gap? A SEVERANCE TAX ON FRACKING LIKE EVERY OTHER FRACKING STATE!! But then, that might affect the cushy retirement plan they have promised Tommie of he remains obedient. Corporett Tom wants to slash everyone else’s retirement while he enhances his own, at our kids’ expense. What a worthless sicko.

  6. @Scott he hasn’t balanced the budget at all. There’s a $500+ million shortfall this year, and $800+ million next year.

    Clearly austerity was the way to go…

  7. Corbett rushed through 3 crappy budgets that failed to generate sufficient revenue for education and public safety services like bridge inspections.

  8. governor Corbett has signed 3 on time and balanced budgets in a row. Not to mention he has covered a 4.2 billion budget deficit that he faced from Ed Rendell’s excessive spending without increasing taxes. I have more faith that he will handle this budget better than Wolf could with his planned spending and tax increases

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  • Do you agree that ByteDance should be forced to divest TikTok?


    • Yes. It's a national security risk. (60%)
    • No. It's an app used by millions and poses no threat. (40%)
    • What's ByteDance? (0%)

    Total Voters: 30

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