On our editorial page today, we bring up a word rarely used these days in Harrisburg.
Compromise.
The new state budget budget that was put in place this week certainly does not make everyone happy. Some Democrats and Gov. Wolf lament it does not do enough.
Some conservative GOPers are livid at the broad array of tax hikes included in the package, even if it did avoid any increases in the personal income or sales taxes, and once again staved off a new tax on the state's natural gas drillers.
So everybody has problems with the spending package.
Which means it's probably just about right.
All except for this, which just might wind up being the most important element of this fiscal plan.
It does nothing to address the fact that the state is still looking at a tidal wave of red ink. The state deficit is somewhere in the vicinity of $1.3 billion. It is not going away just because a new budget is in place.
We'll be hearing about it again next year.
Maybe by then our elected leaders will have the courage to do one of two things: Pass the necessary tax hikes to fund the state and attack the deficit, or make the difficult cuts to bring the beast of deficit spending under control.
Don't hold your breath.
You can read our editorial here.
Comments