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UPDATED: Still No Finished State Budget, Everything Is On The Table, Environmental Funds At Risk

This Story Will Be Updated As Weekend Events Warrant: Get the very latest news at the PA Environment Digest Blog and Twitter Feed:

Saturday--

House Republicans Said It’s Up To The Senate, Gov. Wolf To Lead On The Budget And Then Went Home

House Republicans failed to get an agreement on a revenue package to fill the $2.2 billion deficit and support the $31.996 billion budget passed June 30, according to House Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny), and decided to go home.

Turzai said it is now time for the Senate and Gov. Wolf to lead on the budget and to pass their tax and revenue proposals and send them to the House.

He said House Republicans already passed a responsible budget in April and that is the preferred position of his Caucus.

Turzai said the House has already passed revenue proposals in the form of expanded gaming with video gaming terminals and five different liquor privatization bills that would generate hundreds of millions of dollars, but the Senate hasn’t dealt with them.

Turzai called on Gov. Wolf to put his ideas on the table to raise revenue. He said several times Wolf has been absent from the budget discussions, “I haven’t even seen the Governor in the halls.” “Where is the Governor, do you know where he is?”

Turzai said there was resistance in his Republican Caucus to the Senate’s idea of borrowing $1.5 billion to fill the budget gap and added it is the Senate that wants to pass a tax increase. He challenged the Senate to do it and send it over to the House.

Turzai said his Caucus does not believe casinos should have a monopoly on gaming and that they do not have 102 Republican votes for expanded gaming, but that video gaming terminals increase those numbers a little.

He also said Rep. Stan Saylor (R-York), Majority Appropriations Committee Chair, is planning to introduce a casino impact fee or tax bill in the near future.

He blamed the Senate for putting special fund transfers on the negotiating table, but there would have to be a lot more work to get agreement on which funds would be diverted to the General Fund.

(Summary from remarks broadcast via PLS Reporter and the Periscope app.)

The House is now on a 6-hour call to return to Harrisburg. Sunday session is canceled. The House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee meeting scheduled for Sunday is canceled.

Senate Reaction

PLS Reporter quoted Drew Crompton, Senate Republican Chief Of Staff, as saying, “I think we are going back to some of the points and views and policies that we’ve been talking about for several weeks now. We do not think it is responsible to leave things the way they are now, so we’ll address them next week and hopefully whoever will like to participate with us, they will.”

Capitolwire.com quoted Drew Crompton as saying, “I watched the House Republicans this week – I’m not sure they’re looking for consensus… we will work with whoever wants to work with us. We think it’s a mutual obligation to fund the 2017-18 appropriations bill, and we’ll share in that obligation. We would rather not do it alone, but we can only play with people who want to play with us.”

NewsClips:

AP: Lawmakers Head Home Without Movement On Revenues

AP: Republican Effort To Fund State Budget Without Taxes Stalls

Thompson: Plan B Revenue Package Hits Wall In House, Turzai Challenge Senate, Governor

House Republicans Boot Balancing Budget To Senate

Senate To Return This Week After House Strikes Out In Budget Effort

House Rs Said It’s Up To Senate, Governor To Lead On Budget, Then Went Home

Original Budget Story--

Now entering the fourth week without a revenue package to pay for the General Fund budget they passed June 30, Republicans are locked in negotiations over how to fashion a compromise that will get 26 votes in the Senate and 102 in the House.

The Republicans called the House back into session on Saturday and Sunday primarily for a series of caucus meetings on proposed budget plans. They may also move some budget-related Code bills, if there is agreement in the House on those.

House Republican leaders have put together a no general tax increase budget plan based on borrowing, expanded gaming, expanded liquor sales and fund transfers they hope to vet more thoroughly with House Republicans.

For the last week House and Senate Democrats have been trading increasingly hostile Tweets with House Republicans over not being in session to deal with the budget, although budget meetings have obviously been going on between Republican leaders.

The Twitter battle and pressure from Senate Republicans, who were in voting session this week for two days, no doubt prompted House Speaker Turzai to call a weekend session even after House Majority Leader David Reed (R-Indiana) said they would not be back to Harrisburg unless there was a deal on the revenue package.

Gov. Wolf, with Senate and House Democrats supporting, have been pushing Republicans for more recurring revenue-- $700 to $800 million in taxes-- to address the state’s structural deficit going forward.

Same Revenue Options

All the same revenue options are still on the table from Republicans to fill the $2.2 billion deficit hole they face. Let’s refresh--

-- Fund Transfers: Special Fund transfers to the General Fund, especially those fed by the Realty Transfer Tax (Keystone Recreation, Park & Conservation Fund) and Cigarette Tax (Agricultural Preservation), monies going into the Environmental Stewardship (Growing Greener) Fund, the Domestic Fire Gross Premiums Tax on property insurance policies and from the Joint Underwriting Authority Medical Malpractice Insurance Fund and Horse Racing Development Fund are all being considered.

Update: In a twist, House Republicans are talking about structuring the transfer language to give Gov. Wolf the authorization to make the transfers, if the budget needs the funding, but ultimately giving him no choice but to make the transfers.

-- Tax Credit Cuts: House Republicans have also suggested shaving or eliminating many tax credit programs as corporate welfare, among the tax credits important to environmental programs are the Resource Enhancement and Protection Farm Conservation Tax Credit, which had $11.2 million in applications for $10 million in funding this year, and the Coal Refuse Energy and Reclamation Tax Credit; and

-- Utilities: Expanding the Gross Receipts Tax on electricity and natural gas use and adding a new tax on buying and selling space on energy transmission lines;

-- Borrow: Borrowing $1.5 billion against tobacco settlement revenue, or securitizing some other revenue stream, to fill the biggest part of the revenue hole;

-- Gaming: Adjusting tax rates and expanding gaming with satellite casinos, online gaming, airport gaming, fantasy sports betting, online sales of state lottery tickets, maybe 40,000 video gaming terminals for everyone with a liquor license and redirecting the local share of the present casino tax revenues to the state General Fund;

-- Sales Tax: Extending the state Sales Tax to warehousing and storage and to homeowner cable bills;

-- Liquor: Authorizing beer, wine and spirits sales in more private outlets and shifting the Sales Tax on bottles of alcohol from the bottle bought by liquor license holders to the individual drink bought by consumers;

-- State Assets: Selling or leasing out state assets like the Farm Show Building (although Republicans didn’t like that one because it was Gov. Wolf’s idea) or some other asset;

-- Odds And Ends From Others: Legalizing marijuana and a severance tax on natural gas are very, very long shots.

Holding Up Pitt, Penn State

To help ends meet until a revenue package is passed, nonpreferred funding bills for state-related universities like the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State Temple and Lincoln universities are being held up so that $600 million more in spending does not enter the balance sheet quite yet.

Or as some Democrats said this week, “being held hostage.”

State Treasurer/Auditor General

State Treasurer Joseph Torsella and Auditor General Eugene DePasquale again wrote to members of the General Assembly warning that without new state revenues FY 2017-18 would see negative balances for eight continuous months causing the Treasurer to go to commercial sources of lending.

Tax Amnesty

In one little bit of good budget news, the 2017 PA Tax Amnesty Program generated $114.5 million for the 2016-17 fiscal year budget, exceeding the $100 million net revenue estimate, according to the Department of Revenue. The Senate and House used revenue projections of between $130 and $150 million.

What’s Next?

With vacation reservations staring House members in the face, many schools set to start the third week in August, and Speaker Turzai off to Atlanta Monday and Tuesday for a meeting of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee he chairs, there is a short window of opportunity to finish a revenue package in the near future.

The Senate is still officially on a 6-hour call, but depending on what the House does this weekend they could return Monday.

Or, it might be “see you in September!”

NewsClips:

Legere: Marcellus Impact Fee Collections Expected To Rise After Down Year

Letter: Gas Industry Already Pays Significant State Taxes

Legere: Group Asks If Allegheny County Using Shale Millions As Directed

Op-Ed: PA Supreme Court Extends Its Landmark Environmental Rights Amendment Decision

Op-Ed: Natural Gas Severance Tax Needs To Be Part Of Final Budget Deal

Editorial: State Wants To Drill Gas Customers, Instead Of Frackers

AP: House $2 Billion No New Taxes Revenue Plan Could Be Thorny

House Speaker Mike Turzai’s Big Budget Gamble

AP: House To Hold Session Saturday Amid Swirling Budget Disagreements