On Feb. 8, for the final time as Governor, Gov. Wolf delivered his budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly in Harrisburg for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
The proposal would push Commonwealth spending to $43.7 billion for the fiscal year, the largest ever proposed budget in Pennsylvania history.
“We’re no longer digging out of a hole,” Wolf said. “We’re ready to build and this year’s budget does exactly that.”
The “hole” being referred to is the large budget deficit that the Commonwealth had faced before Democrats took over the Governor’s Office in 2014.
The two-term Democrat asked lawmakers for the largest-ever increase in funding for public schools, higher-education institutions, college scholarships and increased aid for direct care employees.
With education as a top priority in his proposal, Wolf said, “This year we have an opportunity to build on that momentum and make a generational difference for students all across the commonwealth.”
Wolf’s proposal adds an additional $1.9 billion to support students from pre-k to college. With his budget proposal, Wolf says the new hike in education funding will not cause an increase in taxes, as the overall budget will leave the state with a surplus.
Education is the second-largest expenditure in Governor Wolf’s proposed budget, making up 36 percent of proposed spending.
Wolf also called for an increase in the minimum wage to $12 per hour starting on July 1. Annual increases of 50 cents will follow until the minimum wage reaches $15 per hour in 2028. The proposed wage increase could have an estimated 1.5 million workers see an increase in their pay.
“It’s time to do the right thing. It’s time to do the smart thing. It’s time to raise our minimum wage,” Gov. Wolf said while comparing the progress neighboring states have made in raising their own minimum wage.
A vast majority of the budget request was met with stringent opposition by Republican lawmakers.
Representative Clint Owlett (R-Wellsboro) was vocally opposed to the size of the proposal saying, “Just going on a spending spree and spending all this money right now is not responsible government, it’s not responsible to the people.”
However, one suggestion within the budget proposal has lawmakers on both sides of the aisle applauding its addition.
Wolf’s budget proposal suggests reducing the corporate net income tax rate from 9.99 percent to 4.99 percent as quickly as possible. The current tax rate is among the highest in the nation, and the reduction of the rate hopes to make Pennsylvania more competitive and attract more businesses.
Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland) said, “It was so positive to hear that from the governor. It’s something that our state needs, we lose businesses every day to Texas and Florida.”
Expressing his support for the potentially bipartisan initiative, Representative Ryan Bizzarro (D-Erie) said, “Reducing the corporate net income tax, that’s a big signature part of this budget. Republicans have been in favor of that for years, so have some Democrats. Now we have the revenue to do that.”
Despite a vast majority of the proposal being opposed by the Republican majorities, lawmakers state this is standard operating procedure when it comes to the start of the budget process.
“This is a starting point, not the end. We’ll work at this process, we’ll have a bunch of hearings, we’ll bring people in, we’ll dig into this deep and we’ll come up with something that works for the people,” Owlett said.
With Republican majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, it is hard to imagine a scenario where Wolf’s budget appears remotely similar to the proposal by time of passage.
The budgetary process within the General Assembly is a relatively slow-moving procedure. Lawmakers have until June 30 to finalize the 2022-2023 budget, with a majority of the negotiations likely taking shape in late spring or early summer.
