Jul 11, 2016 4 min read

Gov. Tom Wolf’s announcement Sunday he would allow the 2016-17 state budget bill to become law even without a revenue bill to fund it drew mixed reactions from area legislators.

Wolf said the appropriations bill, with a $31 billion spending plan approved by the state House and Senate late last month, provides more support to education and to battle opiate addiction, both causes he championed. Lawmakers had a deadline of midnight Monday to agree on a revenue bill to fund the $1.3 billion gap.

The announcement caused lawmakers, including Rep. Rick Saccone, R-Elizabeth, and Rep. Jim Christiana, R-Beaver, to question the legality of Wolf’s decision. State law requires a balanced budget.

“I’m shocked that the governor would openly and voluntarily commit an unconstitutional and unlawful act. I think the law is very clear the governor has the obligation to ensure the budget is balanced,” Christiana said Monday. “Clearly, this budget is out of balance.”

Saccone called upon Wolf to “step up” and review the budget line by line to reduce spending.

“I’ll continue to fight for a smaller spending amount. I’m not going to vote for any tax increases,” said Saccone, who voted against the budget. “We can’t spend more than we take in.”

But Rep. John Maher, R-Upper St. Clair, said Wolf “demonstrated considerable wisdom,” and said, “an appropriation is a permission to spend, not a commandment.”

“The state can focus on the mission, rather than repeating last year’s never-ending saga,” Maher said.

Lawmakers missed the previous budget deadline by nine months.

State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, echoed relief this year’s budget doesn’t seem to be following the sluggish footsteps of its predecessor, and said the biggest difference is Wolf’s attitude.

“He’s more receptive and listening to both sides,” said Bartolotta.

She voted in favor of the budget because of reassurance from the House that broad-based taxes would not fund spending.

“There’s a lot of options we can pursue before we ask Pennsylvanians for more money,” she said.

Bartolotta supports reforming the state and federal mandates related to public employee pension costs, corrections and human services.

Lawmakers have discussed several ways to fund the gap, including a cigarette tax, a law to allow online gambling and extension of a tax to sales of loose tobacco, large cigars, smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarettes.

On Sunday, Wolf said he believes legislators will soon come up with a revenue package, but Saccone, Christiana and Maher said they were not confident that would happen.

Bartolotta said Monday that a meeting with leadership and Wolf lasted for hours. She said she was hopeful an agreement would be met soon and cited human services departments suffering from a lack of a budget.

“We’re hopeful we learned from last year,” she said. “I refuse to see that happen again.”

Christiana said he voted against the budget because “it spends too much. There seems to be no way to pay for it. I think it’s a bad idea for the taxpayers.”

Maher also voted against the budget but said he doesn’t want a repeat of last year’s stalemate.

“A quarter of a billion dollars is the gap. While it’s an enormous amount of money, relative to the budget … it’s eight-tenths of a percent,” Maher said. “We’re both very close and very far in terms of a resolution.”

While the spending budget has been estimated at $31.5 billion, Maher said it’s closer to $30.5 billion. State Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-South Fayette; Rep. Brandon Neuman, D-North Strabane; Rep. Pete Daley, D-California; and Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, did not return calls for comment.