Third and State

In a story on Lancasteronoline today, East Hempfield Township resident Duane Smith made the same observation that our analysis of the property tax relief plans of Gov. Wolf and House Republicans revealed a month ago: The two proposals aren’t all that different.

It’s week six without a state budget and still no end in sight to the impasse – although negotiations between Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Wolf continue. House Speaker Mike Turzai has cancelled a trip to Israel scheduled for next week so he can continue to participate in budget talks, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

We’re already deep into the summer, and budget impasse, of 2015. In a quick recap of events so far, Gov. Wolf vetoed the hastily constructed and passed Republican budget presented to him on June 30, which lacked a severance tax, property tax relief and any significant increase in education funding. The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center had urged him to veto that budget after releasing an analysis of it.