Here’s a timeline of significant actions taken on the budget and related bills since the Governor’s budget address on March 3 that chronicles how--

-- General Fund Budget Grew: The proposed General Fund budget grew from what Gov. Wolf proposed-- $29.9 billion-- to the “agreed-to” budget of $30.8 billion and back down to $30.2 billion;

-- Governor, ALL Legislative Leaders Agreed Then Didn’t Deliver: Leaders of ALL four legislative Caucuses stood with Gov. Wolf twice at press conferences in November to say they had an agreement on a budget framework that included General Fund, school property tax relief, liquor privatization and pension reform elements, but not a natural gas severance tax.  In a later “agreed-to” budget framework they dropped school property tax relief because rank-and-file votes were not there to support it;

-- Republicans Passed 2 Budget Packages Governor Said He Would Veto And Did: Senate and House Republicans put a General Fund budget package and then a stopgap budget package on the Governor’s desk in the face of a veto threat and then he did what he said-- vetoed the bills;

-- Senate And House Veto Overrides Failed: Senate and House Republicans attempted to override Gov. Wolf’s vetoes of general and stopgap budget bills at separate times without success, and the Senate threatened a third time;

-- House Ds Sunk Pension Reform, House Rs Move Stopgap, Again: House Democrats opposed the  “agreed-to” pension reform bill and sunk it 52 to 149.  House Republicans then moved a stopgap budget that Gov. Wolf has, again, threatened to veto, but this time with Senate Republican supporters saying they want a full year budget.  This one never got out of the House.

-- House When Home For The Holidays Without A Budget Vote: After dramatically reverting to the “agreed-to” General Fund budget bill 100 to 99, the House decides the next day to go home for the holidays without taking any further budget votes.

-- Senate Republicans Reverse Course, Send House GOP Budget To Governor: Senate Republicans late Wednesday reversed course and moved to strip the “agreed-to” $30.8 billion budget from House Bill 1460 (Adolph-R-Delaware) and revert to the House-passed $30.2 billion budget the House Republicans have been advocating for in order to get a budget bill directly to the Governor’s desk for his action.

Here’s the timeline--

-- March: Gov. Wolf unveils a $29.9 billion FY 2015-16 General Fund budget proposal (although that’s somewhat misleading because of the way the overall spending package is proposed) that includes a proposed Personal Income Tax increase from 3 to 3.7 percent, a Sales Tax increase from 6 to 6.6 percent (also eliminating 45 current exemptions from the tax), a $1 per pack increase in the cigarette tax, a new 40 percent tax on smokeless tobacco, large cigars, loose tobacco and e-cigarettes and a 5 percent/ 4.7 percent per volume natural gas severance tax primarily for basic education funding.  The proposal would increase support for basic education by $1 billion, reduce school property taxes by $3.8 billion, raise the minimum wage and make $1.75 billion investments in new infrastructure, among other things.

-- June 1: House Republicans put Gov. Wolf’s full proposed tax package up for a vote in the House as an amendment to House Bill 283 (F.Keller-R-Snyder) and it failed by a vote of 0 to 193.  Not a single member voted for it.  House Democrats called it a “political trick.”

-- June 30: Senate and House Republicans sent their first package of budget bills to the Governor with a $30.2 billion General Fund budget (Note: that’s $200 million MORE than Gov. Wolf proposed in March): House Bill 1192 (Adolph-R-Delaware) (Senate Fiscal Note and summary); Senate Bill 655 (Browne-R-Lehigh) Fiscal Code bill (House Fiscal Note and summary); House Bill 762 (Roe-R-Crawford) Education Code bill (Senate Fiscal Note and summary); Senate Bill 1 (Corman-R-Centre) pension report bill (House Fiscal Note and summary; Actuarial Note); and House Bill 466 (Turzai-R-Allegheny) liquor privatization bill (Senate Fiscal Note and summary).  The Governor vetoed these bills in their entirety on June 30, the same day they were given to him.  Summary of basic items.  Summary of environmental items.

-- August: House Republicans fail in 14 attempts to override the Governor’s veto of House Bill 1192 on certain line items Republicans said were “agreed-to” by almost identicals votes of 115 to 83.  Summary of items. 

In his last comments before the final vote was taken on August 25, Rep. Bill Adolph (R-Delaware), Majority Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, told members, “The end is NOT near” in terms of an overall budget agreement.  How prophetic.

-- September: Senate and House Republicans pass a package of stopgap budget bills September 28, including what they said were many “agreed-to” items. The stopgap budget bills included Senate Bill 1000 (Browne-R-Lehigh) General Fund Stopgap Budget Bill (summary and Senate Fiscal Note); Senate Bill 1001 (Browne-R-Lehigh) Fiscal Code Stopgap Bill (summary and Senate Fiscal Note); and amended House Bill 224 (Christiana-R -Beaver) with the Education Code Stopgap Bill (summary and Senate Fiscal Note).   The Governor vetoed all the bills saying he wants a full budget.

-- October: House Republicans put Gov. Wolf’s revised tax package up for a vote in the House as an amendment to House Bill 283 (F.Keller-R-Snyder).  The amendment failed by a vote of 73 to 127 on October 7.   The package included what Wolf and House Democrats said was a compromise budget revenue package that would raise the Personal Income Tax and impose a new severance tax on natural gas producers to help fill a $2.3 billion structural budget deficit and provide an additional $400 million for basic education.

On October 28 the Senate attempted to override the Governor’s veto of the stopgap budget bill-- Senate Bill 1000-- but fell 3 votes short-- 30 to 19.

-- November 10: Gov. Wolf and leaders of ALL four legislative caucuses agree to a draft budget framework that provides $1.4 billion of new property tax relief funded by a Sales Tax increase of 1.25 percent; $350 million in new basic education funding and $50 million for special education; a Pension Reform bill; a liquor privatization bill (both to be developed later); and no natural gas severance tax.

-- November 19: House passes House Bill 1690 (Turzai-R-Allegheny) liquor privatization bill virtually identical to the bill veto by Gov. Wolf in June as a vehicle for further action.

-- November 23: An amendment to House Bill 683 (Rapp-R-Forest), based on Senate Bill 76 (Argall-R-Schuylkill), to raise $13 billion to eliminate the school district property taxes by increasing the Personal Income Tax from 3.07 to 4.95 percent and the Sales Tax from 6 to 7 percent failed in the Senate by a tie vote broken by the Lt. Governor who voted no.  The vote was a test of whether broad-based tax increase could be used to support school property tax reductions.  The best the House ever did on school property tax reform was when it passed House Bill 504 (Gabler-R-Clearfield) in May which increased the Personal Income and Sales taxes enough to provide $5 billion worth of relief.

-- November 23: Budget framework agreement falls apart for various reasons, including the lack of support for increasing broad-based taxes to provide for less than 100 percent elimination of school property taxes. Some House Republicans suggest a “barebones” $30.2 billion General Fund budget without increasing the Personal Income or Sales taxes.  Gov. Wolf said either pass the bills agreed to on November 10 in the budget framework or he would accept any budget bill passed by the Senate/House by December 4.  (No one took him up on his offer.)

-- November 25: A revised budget framework is again agreed to by Gov. Wolf and ALL four Caucuses after Senate Republicans threatened to attempt another vote to override the Governor’s veto of the stopgap funding bill.  The new budget framework eliminates any school property tax relief and the use of the Sales Tax to fund the estimated $600 million in new revenues to support the new, “agreed-to” $30.8 billion General Fund budget.  (Note: that’s $900 million MORE than the Governor’s proposal and $600 million MORE than the House Republican “barebones” budget.)

-- December 4: Senate passes another pension reform bill vehicle-- Senate Bill 1071 (Browne-R-Lehigh) and it moves to the House.

-- December 7-10:  The Senate passes second full budget package containing the “agreed-to” $30.8 billion General Fund budget in Senate Bill 1073 (Browne-R-Lehigh), but without a supporting tax package to an uncertain future in the House (spreadsheet).  A few days later the Senate passed the remainder of the package: Fiscal Code - House Bill 1327 (Peifer-R-Pike); Administrative Code - House Bill 941 (Regan-R-Cumberland); liquor privatization - House Bill 1690 (Turzai-R-Allegheny); pension reform -  Senate Bill 1082 (Browne-R-Lehigh); Welfare Code - House Bill 1322 (Kaufer-R-Luzerne); and Education Code - House Bill 530 (Reese-R-Somerset).

House Republicans, in turn, pass their “barebones” $30.2 billion General Fund budget December 8 in House Bill 1460 (Adolph-R-Delaware) and send it to the Senate.  Within hours, the Senate amends the House budget bill with the “agreed-to” $30.8 billion budget where it remains on the Senate Calendar for a final vote.

-- December 14: House sends the Welfare Code bill-- House Bill 1322 (Kaufer-R-Luzerne) to the Governor for his action and amends the Administrative Code-- House Bill 941 (Regan-R- Cumberland) and sends it back to the Senate.

-- December 18: Senate passes Tax Code vehicle-- House Bill 1198 (Dunbar-R-Westmoreland).

-- December 19: House fails to pass the “agreed-to” pension reform Senate Bill 1071 (Browne-R-Lehigh) by a vote of 52 to 149 with House Democrats opposing the bill.  Budget framework falls apart for the third time since November 10.

-- December 21: House Republicans amend Senate Bill 1073 (Browne-R-Lehigh), the General Fund bill, by a party-line vote in the Appropriations Committee to include the 11-month, stopgap budget, taking out the “agreed-to” General Fund budget provisions and reported it to the full House. 

The Rules Committee, again by a party-line vote, amended House Bill 1327 (Peifer-R-Pike), the Fiscal Code bill, and took out many of the provisions added as part of the “agreed-to” budget in the Senate and reported it to the full House.

They took out provisions related to giving the General Assembly extra time to review Pennsylvania’s plan for meeting EPA’s Clean Power Climate Rule, killing the conventional oil and gas regulations on the verge of being finalized by DEP, a $12 million Natural Gas Infrastructure Development Fund and $22 million for small water and wastewater project funding for the Commonwealth Financing Authority.

-- December 22: In a dramatic 100 to 99 vote, the full House Tuesday voted to revert to the Senate’s “agreed-to” $30.8 billion General Fund budget bill-- Senate Bill 1073 (Browne-R-Lehigh)-- and then voted 100 to 97 to move the bill up for what could be a final December 23.

The House Rules Committee also considered the Education Code bill-- House Bill 530 (Reese-R-Somerset)-- which was amended to guarantee all school districts a minimum of 90 percent of the Basic Education Commission funding formula, reverts to cap provisions for charter schools to current law and other changes and the Fiscal Code bill-- House Bill 1327 (Peifer-R-Pike)--- was amended in party-line votes to make changes and corrections consistent with the “agreed-to” General Fund appropriations bill voted Tuesday in the House.

Provisions related to giving the General Assembly extra time to review Pennsylvania’s plan for meeting EPA’s Clean Power Climate Rule, killing the conventional oil and gas regulations on the verge of being finalized by DEP, a $12 million Natural Gas Infrastructure Development Fund and $22 million for small water and wastewater project funding for the Commonwealth Financing Authority were put back into the Fiscal Code bill by the House.

Both bills were reported to the full House.

The Senate announced it was coming back into session December 23.

-- December 23: The “agreed-to” budget framework has now fallen apart for the fourth time as the House adjourns to go home for the holidays without taking a vote on any state budget bill.  Technically, they’re on a 6-hour call.

-- December 23 Act II: Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Centre) late Wednesday reversed course and moved to strip the “agreed-to” $30.8 billion budget from House Bill 1460 (Adolph-R-Delaware) and revert to the House-passed $30.2 billion budget the House Republicans have been advocating for in order to get a budget bill directly to the Governor’s desk for his action.

The Senate voted 30 to 19, along party-lines, to approve the motion to revert, and 33 to 17 to send the bill to the Governor for his action (with Senators Schwank (D-Berks) and Dinniman (D-Chester) defecting).

Although clearly outside the “agreed-to” budget framework, Sen. Corman said negotiations are not done on the budget and there can be not final budget agreement unless issues like the non-preferreds are dealt with, including funding for Penn State University in Sen. Corman’s district.

The status of the “agreed-to” budget framework can now best be described by this scene from the movie The Princess Bride--

Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.

Inigo Montoya: What's that?

Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

Now Gov. Wolf has to decide whether to sign it, veto it in part or in full, a decision he said will come next week, possibly as early as Monday.

12/28/2015