HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The Latest on Pennsylvania’s budget negotiations (all times local):
10:30 p.m.
A top Pennsylvania state senator says it looks increasingly unlikely that lawmakers will pass legislation to patch the state’s tattered finances before Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf must make a decision on a nearly $32 billion spending bill on his desk.
Senate Republican leader Jake Corman said Sunday night that there was no agreement between Wolf and the leaders of the House and Senate Republican majorities in a 9-day-old stalemate.
Corman says the sides are a couple hundred million dollars apart on a roughly $2.2 billion revenue package that’ll lean heavily on borrowing and more gambling.
Wolf wants $700 million to $800 million of it to be reliable revenue, such as tax increases, to help the state avoid another credit downgrade.
At midnight Monday, the spending bill becomes law without Wolf’s signature. Before then, Wolf can sign it, veto it or strike out some of the spending.
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8 p.m.
Negotiators in Pennsylvania’s nine-day-old budget stalemate are signaling that they’re having difficulty reaching agreement on a deal to patch up the state government’s tattered finances.
Closed-door talks in the Pennsylvania Capitol on Sunday come a day before Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s midnight Monday deadline to make a decision on the main appropriations bill in a $32 billion budget package.
Budget negotiators are trying to scrounge more than $2 billion. So far, they’re backing a plan to borrow much of the money and authorize another big gambling expansion in the nation’s No. 2 commercial casino state.
Friction revolves around Wolf’s insistence that lawmakers produce $700 million to $800 million in reliable revenue, such as tax increases, to help the state avoid another downgrade to its battered credit rating.
Negotiators otherwise are saying little about their closed-door talks, and in particular what sort of tax increases were under discussion.
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4:20 p.m.
Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives is in session while budget negotiators try to reach agreement on a deal to scrounge $2 billion to patch up state government’s tattered finances.
Sunday’s session comes ahead of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s midnight Monday deadline to make a decision on the main appropriations bill in a $32 billion budget package.
House Republican leader Dave Reed says Wolf is pushing the Republican-controlled Legislature to produce more money in a revenue package. But Reed says if Wolf doesn’t like what House Republicans are offering then the governor will need to veto parts of the spending bill.
Negotiators are saying little about their closed-door talks. It involves another big gambling expansion in the nation’s No. 2 commercial casino state, borrowing more than $1 billion and possibly a tax increase.
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