Jun 28, 2016 3 min read

HARRISBURG – Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday he is concerned about budget legislation that is primed for a vote in the House of Representatives, but added there’s still time to fix it before the state embarks on a new fiscal year.

Wolf said he could not endorse a nearly $31.6 billion spending plan he said does not include enough revenue to “truly” balance the budget. He said he hoped the Senate would fix the flaws, should it pass the House.

“I haven’t agreed to this and as far as I can tell, there’s still some things to be worked out,” Wolf said during a regularly scheduled appearance on KQV-AM radio in Pittsburgh.

The state’s 2016-17 fiscal year starts Friday.

Meanwhile, top Senate officials have been cool to the House’s spending and tax plans, and many details about them remain under wraps.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Adolph insisted Tuesday the budget package is properly balanced, but declined to divulge information on how he came to that conclusion.

Further, he suggested a tax package underpinning the spending plan – including tax increases on the sale of cigarettes and various other tobacco products – would not be made public until a broader agreement on spending was reached between House and Senate Republicans and Democrats.

“Once they have come to an agreement with all four caucuses, then there’s various funding issues on the table,” Adolph said. “The House is very confident that our spending plan can be passed through the House.”

In addition to new tobacco taxes, the House’s plan to balance the budget includes tax and fee revenue from pending legislation that would make Pennsylvania the fourth state to allow casino-style gambling online.

The spending plan was poised for a vote in the Republican-controlled House on Tuesday after getting bipartisan support in a committee vote late Monday night. It would increase overall spending by 5 percent and public school instruction and operations by $200 million, or about 3 percent. Wolf sought $250 million more for schools and $34 million more to bolster heroin addiction treatment programs.

The House plan also maintains the spending levels on higher education institutions, including Penn State, which top senators criticized as inadequate. Wolf had sought a 5 percent increase to $1.7 billion.

The spending increase is driven by public schools, pension obligations and human services, as well as an attempt to balance a deficit that the Legislature’s Independent Fiscal Office has estimated could hit $1.8 billion in the 2016-17 fiscal year.

While Wolf criticized the House’s plan as out of balance, he did not say what he would support as an alternative, and the Senate’s Republican majority has not proposed an alternative tax plan.

Efforts to pass a budget ahead of the new fiscal year’s start follow a record-breaking partisan budget stalemate in Wolf’s first budget year, a deadlock that was not fully resolved until April.

In any case, House Republicans have already squeezed significant concessions from Wolf, who in February proposed a $33.3 billion spending plan — a 10 percent increase — backed by a $2.7 billion tax plan that also called for higher taxes on income, sales and Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling.

That had included a proposal to raise the per-pack cigarette tax to $2.60, from $1.60, and to extend a 40 percent wholesale tax to sales of larger cigars, loose tobacco, smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarettes. Those products are currently untaxed by Pennsylvania.