Aug 23, 2017 3 min read

Oh, to be a Pennsylvania state lawmaker. They make salaries that are three or four times that of the average Pennsylvanian’s annual income. They have a lovely package of benefits, including a sweet retirement system and top-notch health-care plan. And all this for working in Harrisburg only sporadically, even when they have failed miserably, as they often do, to achieve their only constitutionally mandated duty, which is to pass a functional budget by June 30.

It was nearly eight weeks ago when the Republican-controlled Legislature sent Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf a spending plan for the new fiscal year. We say “spending plan,” because this was in no way a true budget. An actual budget includes a framework for how to pay for all that spending – in this case, about $32 billion worth. This so-called budget forwarded to the governor by lawmakers offered no guidance on how to generate the money to fully finance it. “Oh, we’ll get that worked out in short order,” was basically what the legislative leaders said. Wolf let the spending plan take effect without his signature, and here we are, close to eight weeks later, still waiting for the Republicans in the Legislature to get their collective act together.

We should note that the Senate approved a revenue plan last month, with the governor’s backing. It calls for new taxes – including what would be a first-ever extraction tax on natural gas producers – a variety of small to middling tax increases and lots and lots of borrowing. That plan was, shall we say, dead on arrival in the state House, where Speaker Mike Turzai, who reportedly has an eye on running for the governor’s office against Wolf next year, is dead set against any tax increases. His vision for paying the bills includes even more borrowing than the Senate plan, which as anyone who runs a household knows, is not good business.

It’s no secret that Pennsylvania is in unstable financial shape. It ended the last fiscal year with a $1.5 billion shortfall. Yes, billion with a B. And the spending plan for the current year has a $700 million hole.

And now, according to a report Tuesday from the Associated Press, Wolf is predicting that the state’s main bank account will “run out of cash” within three weeks.

Said Wolf during an appearance Tuesday on Pittsburgh’s KDKA radio, “I think there are a lot of adults in the room in Harrisburg, and some of the folks on the House Republican leadership ought to get their act together and finish the job.”

Turzai, though, apparently has no plans to call rank-and-file lawmakers back to Harrisburg until Sept. 11. In the meantime, party leaders are trying to work on a revenue plan. So, let’s say they come up with a proposal. Maybe it includes expanded gambling. Maybe it includes further privatization of the state liquor system – which we would welcome, by the way. Maybe it fully funds all the state’s needs. But what if the Senate says, “No way.” Then we’re pretty much back to square one. It doesn’t give a person the greatest confidence in the leadership skills of the folks at the top in the Legislature.

Remember when you were a kid and your mother told you, “No playing outside until your homework is done”? Maybe she could lay down the law to Turzai and company.