After a late night session, the state House and Senate have passed all the major pieces required to complete the state’s budget minus one piece that the House is taking up today.
According to the Patriot News, the Senate passed the tax-code that balances the budget primarily through borrowing and transfers the House had passed last week.
The only action that remains is for the House to pass a gambling expansion bill that was sent over by the Senate, reports State House Sound Bites.
The gambling bill is a compromise between the House and Senate that legalizes gambling in airports and online, as well as legalizing video gaming terminals in truck stops, and allows for 10 new miniature casinos in the state.
“I’ve traditionally been against expanded gaming, but the reality of the situation is, when you’re looking at billions of dollars of tax increases, or expanding something that’s already going on in Pennsylvania, I think that’s key,” House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-Indiana) told State House Sound Bites.
Governor Wolf’s spokesman said that the Governor will review the bills in the coming days to decide the actions he will take.
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11 Responses
It is very unfortunate that the Republican legislature resorted to expanding gambling to close their revenue shortfall. This is not a sustainable path and is actually a scam on the middle class and senior citizens to capture their limited income. All so we can continue to worship at the altar of corporations and the wealthy.
Casinos uber alles!
Maybe we can lower the gambling age and start putting VGTs in school cafeterias. Anything to avoid raising taxes, right?
Especially put the VGTs in the State System, maybe that will self fund those schools; but when all else fails: Blame Wolf!
Viva las vegas!
Hey Dave Reed:
“when you’re looking at billions of dollars of tax increases, or expanding something that’s already going on in Pennsylvania”
Umm… taxing fracking is already going on in other states, and overdue for PA.
As a Conservative,you may think it is rare for me to critize my side of the political spectrum, but I blame this budget mess on the Republicans. I know it’s hard to work with a Governor of the opposite party, but this is really bull crap. Hopefully this is a great solution for the people, which I doubt for some reason.
How do you feel about loaning money for the budget? Somewhere someone told me that you should not add your household expenses and property taxes to your credit card balance.
Horrible idea, there is better solutions I’m sure.
I appreciate the intellectual honesty. In fairness to Republicans generally, the Senate Republicans have been pretty reasonable in this process and seem to have been negotiating in good faith.
Yes, the Republicans in the House have definitely had large part of this mess.