With No Leadership From Dem Gov Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania’s Fiscal Situation Worsens 

Under Democrat Governor Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania’s fiscal situation continues to worsen as the state’s seven week long budget stalemate enters an even “more severe stage.” Pennsylvania’s Treasurer is now saying that the state will run out of money to pay the bills by August 29, a situation some officeholders describe as a “new frontier” that “we have never seen before.” But while the state is mired in a budget crisis, Wolf has been more concerned with his re-election, “jetting around the state to ribbon-cuttings” and “getting on the radio to talk about this and that.” As Wolf spends his time trying to run away from Pennsylvania’s budget issues, voters are taking notice.

The Associated Press reports:

“Top state officials are warning that Pennsylvania’s deficit-strapped government is rapidly approaching a more severe stage in its 7-week-old budget stalemate, one in which Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf may have to start deciding which bills to pay and which to postpone.

Taxes are still being collected and checks are being cut by the Pennsylvania Treasury under a nearly $32 billion budget bill that lawmakers approved June 30, the day before the current fiscal year began.

But that spending plan is badly out of balance, and without a loan or an emergency revenue package, the state will face hard decisions within days.

‘Somebody’s not getting paid if this doesn’t get fixed,’ Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, a Democrat, said Friday. ‘Who it is — the vendors, I don’t know — that’s a decision for others to make. It’s simply a math equation: there’s not enough money to pay everybody.’

‘We are entering an era of a new frontier, and by that I mean things we have never seen before,’ said Drew Crompton, the top aide to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson.

Wolf’s office wouldn’t answer questions about the governor’s contingency plans, saying only that it was monitoring cash flow as it waits for the House of Representatives to return to Harrisburg to complete a revenue package…

Meanwhile, the Wolf administration is seeking to borrow money from off-budget state programs without approval from lawmakers or the Treasury Department, state officials said.

Torsella’s office projects that the state’s main bank account will fall below $0 by Aug. 29 and go $1.6 billion in the red by mid-September. Without a revenue package or a loan, it will remain in negative territory until next spring, when the heavy tax collection season begins, his office said.”