Discord in Pennsylvania over budget bill

This week’s reportage started on an optimistic note as the gap between the Pennsylvania state Senate and House on a budget funding measure appeared to be closing, but it has ended with acrimony amid reports that the state’s lawmakers are still not agreed on a compromise solution.

Confusion appeared to reign in Harrisburg Wednesday, with Gov. Tom Wolf blaming House Republicans for the continuing impasse, and indicating that he may have to securitise profits from the state’s liquor system to create a stop gap, an act that could at best provide a temporary solution forcing lawmakers to address the issues again next year. It could, however, reduce the necessity of further borrowing by the state.

Securitising involves converting an asset into marketable securities, typically for the purpose of raising cash by selling them to other investors.

Local press reports indicated that the House failed to approve the Senate’s latest recommendations, with some outlets claiming that the unexpected sticking point was a proposed increase in hotel taxation.

House Republicans and Democrats were at loggerheads over other (non-gambling) proposals which reportedly exposed some bitter animosity between the two parties, and that couldn’t have helped.

The significant potential for raising additional and recurring revenue afforded by the gambling expansion proposals appears to remain intact so far, but these cannot stand alone, according to Associated Press reports on the budget debacle.

The news service notes that both House and Senate are due back at work on October 16, and that there is the possibility in the meantime of further negotiations between House and Senate in an attempt to find a solution.

The governor’s office told the publication Penn Live that the securitising option will take around two months to put together, which gives the warring lawmakers a window of opportunity to find a compromise that does not simply postpone a permanent solution to the budget funding problem.

The governor is on record as saying that his preference is for a properly funded budget agreed by the Legislature.

Bottom line – still no resolution of the budget funding problem, but there at least appears to be agreement on the gambling expansion proposals as part of a package of funding measures.

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