PA Governor Allows Spending Plan With Online Gambling Measure Into Law
HARRISBURG - (Associated Press) - In an unexpected move that immediately raised a host of legal questions, Gov. Wolf said on Sunday that he will allow the $31.5 billion spending plan the legislature has sent him to become law - even though there is no plan for how to pay for it.
The governor has until 11:59 p.m. Monday to decide whether to approve or veto - in whole or in part - the spending plan that the legislature approved just hours before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.
Wolf had initially said he could not support a budget without a corresponding deal on revenues to support it. But on Sunday, he told reporters in the Capitol that he will allow a negotiated spending plan to become law on Monday, without his signature, even without a revenue deal in place.
State law requires that the budget be balanced. Without a revenue plan, the spending blueprint the legislature sent Wolf will not be in balance, as it requires new revenue to bolster it.
Asked about that requirement, Wolf said he was confident the legislature will deliver a compromise on revenue by Monday.
"I believe this can, I believe it should be done, by the end of the day tomorrow," he said.
Though the legislature met the July 1 deadline for sending Wolf a budget, it did not send him a corresponding plan for how to pay for it.
Since that time, House and Senate leaders have been negotiating to find new sources of revenue to meet the governor's demand that they close deficit and boost funding for public education.
The House has backed a revenue package that would raise about $1 billion from expanding gambling, hiking tobacco taxes, breaking the state's monopoly on wine sales and instituting a tax amnesty program.
Wolf and top Senate Republicans have questioned the House's plans, saying they rely on unrealistic projections. Senate leaders have also expressed misgivings about the House's proposal to increase by $1 the tax on a pack of cigarettes, as well as the scope of its gambling expansion measure, which calls for legalizing online gambling and placing slots in airports and off-track betting parlors.
Update - Legalizing a gambling expansion to the internet could generate lucrative license fees right away, lawmakers say. However, the House and Senate do not see eye to eye on the sprawling gambling legislation, and no such bill has reached Wolf's desk, much less passed the Senate.
