GOP leader: Wolf's budget prediction 'premature'

HARRISBURG - House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R., Indiana) said Wednesday that it was "premature" for Gov. Wolf to predict that a state budget would not be enacted on time this year.

Reed told Capitol reporters he believed Wolf's prediction - which came in a Tuesday interview with The Inquirer - reflected the neophyte status of a Democratic governor in his first term. Reed said Republicans who control the legislature had yet to hold their first budget meeting with the governor. That comes next week.

"The governor was the one who declared a new day had started in Harrisburg with him taking office, that he was going to set a new tone, and that he did not have any interest in turning Harrisburg into Washington, D.C., with partisan gridlock," Reed said.

On Tuesday, Wolf told The Inquirer that he does not expect his administration and the Republican-led legislature to reach a deal on a spending plan before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.

He said he was hopeful for an on-time budget, but said history was a reality check. Late budgets were the norm under Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat like Wolf who, for many of his eight years in office, had to negotiate with Republican-dominated legislative chambers.

While Pennsylvania is not legally obligated to enact a spending plan by the start of the new fiscal year, a long delay could lead to disruptions in paying bills and employees, and providing services.

Jeff Sheridan, Wolf's spokesman, said Wednesday that Wolf looked forward to discussions about the budget, and was open to new ideas. But he said the governor was committed to his priorities, which include lowering property taxes, creating jobs, and boosting education funding.

"Those issues are urgent, and they can't wait," Sheridan said.

The centerpiece of Wolf's $29.9 billion budget proposal is a major revamping of how and how much Pennsylvania residents pay in taxes.

Wolf's plan would raise sales and income taxes, and use the resulting new revenue to reduce property taxes in school districts across the state. (In Philadelphia, that money would be used primarily to whittle away at the oft-maligned wage tax.)

Wolf's spending plan would also boost funding for public schools by nearly $1 billion.

Reed said Wednesday that his caucus and Wolf had certain goals in common, with property-tax reduction topping that list. He said House Republicans had been working on several ideas and would soon unveil their plan to lower or possibly eliminate property taxes.