Tuesday night, the state House Republicans continued their push for a revenue package centered around one time transfers, borrowing, and accounting tricks to fill the $2.2 billion funding gap.
According to the Patriot News, the revenue package will likely be used as a launching point for another round of budget negotiations as the budget stalemate continues into the 110th day. The Patriot News notes that Senate Republican and Democratic sources made it clear they did not agree to the House’s plan.
The Morning Call says that the main source of funding for the House’s plan, that passed on a 102-88 vote, comes from a $1.5 billion bond against the state’s share of the tobacco settlement.
Governor Wolf is continuing his push for at severance tax on natural gas extraction in the state, but has at least said he would let other sources of recurring revenue for the state pass into law to end the current stalemate.
The current stalemate has led to Pennsylvania’s credit being downgraded, putting into the bottom five of states.
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5 Responses
The MSA [master settlement agreement] with big-tobacco supplied $215B to be devoted, during the subsequent 3 decades, to unwinding smoking-addiction among youth…the gravamen of the case.
Another Bait and Switch….
Remember when bonds were used to fund multi-generational investments instead of kicking the can on balancing a budget? It’s no wonder our infrastructure is crumbling with this sort of short-term thinking.
Sometimes you can kick the can. Later, you get kicked in the can. I thought Republicans were like, all marvelous money managers. If time is money, they need to stop winding their watches.
The charge against Democrats has been “tax and spend” but with Republicans, they want to spend and spend some more but never man up to raise the necessary funds to cover their spending. Republicans are the party that is bankrupting our state and nation.