House GOP hits wall on budget-balancing plan

(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives put off preliminary votes Tuesday on measures designed to plug the state government’s $2.2 billion budget gap with money siphoned partly from public transportation and environmental improvement programs.

Speaker Mike Turzai abruptly adjourned the chamber after a brief floor session, surprising some rank-and-file members of the House’s deeply divided GOP majority.

The House was scheduled to return to session Wednesday, but it was not clear what the GOP majority’s next step will be in a budget stalemate now in its third month.

“Who knows?” said Rep. Scott Petri, R-Bucks. “We had our meetings, everybody staked out their position.”

The House GOP plan was written by anti-tax conservatives, but lacked enough support to pass the chamber. It is opposed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, House Democratic leaders and southeastern Pennsylvania Republicans as a way to keep state agencies, programs, schools and institutions funded at levels supported overwhelmingly by lawmakers in a $32-billion spending agreement.

Leaders of the Senate’s Republican majority also have given no sign that they would support the House GOP’s plan to tap off-budget accounts, such as those for public transportation and environmental improvement programs. House GOP leaders were working on changes to the plan in an effort to win enough support to pass the chamber, backers said.

With the state’s main bank account scheduled to hit zero on Friday, Wolf’s administration is warning the eight insurers that administer benefits for 2.2 million Medicaid enrollees that they may not receive their monthly payments of about $800 million on time.

It would be the first time Pennsylvania state government has missed a payment as a result of not having enough cash, state officials said.

Since the recession, Pennsylvania state government has reliably bailed out its deficit-ridden finances by borrowing money from the state treasury or a bank during periods when tax collections are slow.

However, this year, Wolf has warned that he is out of options to pay bills on time, and a Tuesday letter to Wolf and state lawmakers from Pennsylvania’s two independently elected fiscal officers — Treasurer Joe Torsella and Auditor General Eugene DePasquale — underscored that.

In the two-page letter, Torsella and DePasquale said they are “disinclined” to authorize the state to borrow money as long as the state’s budget is out of balance. A loan would help the state make its payments on time until the spring, when a large volume of tax collections is due.

But it would also contribute to an “economic ‘moral hazard’ that effectively increases the long-term risks to the Commonwealth’s finances,” Torsella and DePasquale wrote.

An earlier story appears below.

(Harrisburg) — Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives is putting off preliminary votes on measures designed to plug state government’s $2.2 billion budget gap with money siphoned partly from public transportation and environmental improvement programs.

Speaker Mike Turzai abruptly adjourned the chamber Tuesday, surprising some rank-and-file members of the House’s GOP majority. The House is supposed to return to session Wednesday, but it’s not clear what’ll happen next in a budget stalemate now in its third month.

The plan is opposed by Democratic Governor Tom Wolf, House Democratic leaders and southeastern Pennsylvania Republicans as a way to keep state agencies, programs, schools and institutions funded at levels supported overwhelmingly by lawmakers in a $32 billion spending agreement.

With the state’s main bank account getting low, Wolf’s administration is warning insurers that they may not receive Medicaid payments on time.

An earlier story appears below. 

(HARRISBURG) — Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives is preparing to take preliminary votes on measures designed to plug state government’s $2.2 billion budget gap with money siphoned partly from public transportation and environmental improvement programs.

A vote Tuesday determines whether the House’s GOP majority can send the measure to the Senate.

If it fails, it’s not clear what happens next in a budget stalemate now in its third month.

The plan was developed by anti-tax conservatives.

But it’s opposed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, House Democratic leaders and southeastern Pennsylvania Republicans as a way to keep state agencies, programs, schools and institutions funded at levels supported overwhelmingly by lawmakers in a $32 billion spending agreement.

With the state’s main bank account getting low, Wolf’s administration is warning insurers that they may not receive Medicaid payments on time.