What you need to know about Gov. Wolf’s budget address

Governor to lay out spending proposals in speech this a.m.

• Ed Mahon
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  Ed Mahon comes to Spotlight PA from PA Post, where he covered state politics and policy, produced radio stories that were broadcast on public media stations throughout the state and on NPR’s national newscasts, and co-wrote a weekday newsletter. Prior to joining PA Post, Ed worked for six years as an investigative and political reporter for the York Daily Record, part of the USA Today Network. His reporting on failures in Pennsylvania’s system for protecting domestic abuse victims was a finalist in the national 2018 Livingston Awards for Young Journalists in the local reporting category. He was also part of a team whose coverage of the criminal justice system, including the aggressive use of civil asset forfeiture by York County prosecutors, received the 2018 G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic Service from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Before joining the York Daily Record, Ed covered K-12 education at the Centre Daily Times in State College and worked as a stringer for suburban sections of The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

 Katie Meyer / WITF

Wolf, Democratic lawmakers and state secretaries gather to call for toxin abatement funding.

Katie Meyer / WITF

Wolf, Democratic lawmakers and state secretaries gather to call for toxin abatement funding. (Katie Meyer / WITF)

The Pennsylvania governor’s annual budget address is a chance for the state’s chief executive to tout accomplishments, propose new ideas and even return to old ones.

The speech kicks off debate over the state budget, which the legislature and governor are supposed to be finished with by the end of June. Here are some of the things we’ll watch for tomorrow when Gov. Wolf speaks:

• A return to old ideas: Last week, Wolf repeated his call for a $15 per hour minimum wage. And he wants to impose a severance tax on natural gas drilling to pay for a major infrastructure improvement program.

• Gas attack: One interesting aspect of the severance tax debate this year is how the industry is taking increased criticism from Pa. elected officials, not to mention the call by some Democratic presidential contenders to ban fracking altogether. StateImpact PA recently looked at the conflict between Wolf’s pro-drilling stance and his effort to tackle climate change.

• Higher education: PennLive’s Jan Murphy and Charlie Thompson report that some people expect the governor to support more funding for the State System of Higher Education. “There’s also rumblings in higher education circles about the possibility of the governor calling for some additional grant or scholarship aid directed to college students,” they write. By one measure, Pennsylvania ranks second in the nation for student loan debt.

• Debt forgiveness for teachers: Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, is pushing for some type of loan forgiveness for educators who have student debt. PSEA hasn’t presented a specific proposal, but spokesperson Chris Lilienthal says the group “is hoping that the governor will address the problem of student debt in his budget, and that it will open the door for further discussions.”

• A grab bag of proposals: Wolf has already previewed some of what will be in his budget plan, including $12.35 million innovation plan and a $1.1 billion plan to clean up health hazards in schools.

• How will Republican and Democratic legislators react? Last year, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, said he would “break with tradition” and skip complaining about the governor’s proposal. Instead, Corman said there was a lot Republicans could “embrace and get behind, at least generically.” While Republicans were somewhat positive in 2019, some Democrats wanted Wolf to go further, as Stephen Caruso reported last year for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.

• The big picture: Wolf isn’t expected to call for a personal income or sales tax increase. But it’s always worth watching for any proposals for new fees, the elimination of tax exemptions or credits, or any money transfers that make it harder to understand total spending increases.

Wolf’s budget address is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. You can watch online here. We’ll have coverage throughout the day.

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