As of this writing (around noon on Friday, 6/30), the legislature is on track to send a spending plan for the 2017/18 fiscal year to Governor Tom Wolf’s desk by the end of the day, which means they’ll successfully meet their budget deadline. Kind of.
The spending plan is a bipartisan compromise—no easy thing for PA’s legislature and governor to achieve. But it doesn’t include a revenue plan, which means it’s not balanced—and in fact, lawmakers are still pretty far from agreeing on exactly how to fill a roughly $2.2 billion hole.
PennLive’s Charlie Thompson and Angela Couloumbis of the Philly Inquirer join us to talk about the political, legal, and fiscal ramifications of handling a budget this way. Plus, we break down the relatively minimal changes in spending laid out by the legislature’s $32 billion plan.
Things will probably have changed by the time you listen to this podcast, so keep an eye on WITF’s state politics feed for updated information.
State House Sound Bites Podcast: NPR | iTunes | Google Play
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS