They're starting to circle the wagons out in Harrisburg.
As you might expect, new Gov. Tom Wolf's budget, which calls for hikes in both the personal income and sales taxes, is not being well-received by Republicans who control both the House and Senate.
Delco's own Bill Adolph, R-166, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee that will oversee the process, made his feelings pretty clear.
"This is a gigantic tax increase," Adolph said. "OK? A gigantic tax increase. I do belive the PIT and the sale tax is on the middle cleass. And the governor picked and chose wher ehe sent the money to."
For his part, Wolf is trying to remind people that those increases will be balanced by relief on property taxes.
Good luck with argument, governor.
In the meantime, state Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lcnaster, the chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee, paid us a visit this week to push the governor's fiscal plan.
Sturla stresses the governor's mission to reverse four years of declining education funding under former Gov. Tom Corbett. Yes, he concedes that a big chunk of that was federal stimulus funds, but it doesn't change the bottom line. Schools were getting less money.
About $1 billion less. Sturla says Wolf would like to reverse that and actually increase funding for schools to the tune of $2 billion.
To do that he will need revenue, which is why those tax hikes, along with a new severance tax on natural gas drilling in the state, are getting so much attention.
So I asked Sturla, since the GOP controls both the House and Senate, what the chances are that any of this is going to get done.
He admitted it's an uphill battle.
He also admitted something else.
Those four years of on-time budgets that Corbett was so proud of? They might be a thing of the past. Sturla fully expects the budget impasse to blow past the midnight July 1 deadline and go into overtime. He believes Republicans will pass an alternate budget that does not increase taxes, and he says Wolf will veto it.
So I asked him if Wolf would be willing to shut down the state government?
Sturla wouldn't say, but if I was a state legislator, I would not be making a lot of plans for the July 4th weekend.
Stay tuned.
The Battle of Harrisburg is just starting to heat up.
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