BETHLEHEM, Pa. — We’ve reached the middle of the month, and with that, we’re more than two weeks past the deadline for the state budget.
But as of the time of the recording of this week’s Political Pulse, state lawmakers have failed to pass a spending plan for the year ahead.
LehighValleyNews.com’s Tom Shortell sat down with political scientist Chris Borick to discuss what the hold ups are and why Pennsylvania never seems to meet its budget deadlines.
“It’s like clockwork,” Shortell said. “Pennsylvania has this budget deadline and never meets it.”
So what gives?
Borick called it “a sign of the difficult nature of fiscal policy.”
“States have to balance budgets,” he said. “Unlike the federal government, which can run deficits and build up debt, states can’t do that. They have to find a way to balance the budget.”
He noted there’s lots of moving parts, demands for government service, resistance to any new types of revenue streams and more.
“Roll those things all together, and it becomes one of the big challenges of governing at the state level and we find that out almost every year now that we can’t meet the deadline.”
Shortell pointed out how the budget process has been complicated by things like Congressional efforts to slash Medicaid and shift more expenses on to the states.
“How is Pennsylvania supposed to come up with a spending plan when a major expense outside of their control is up in the air?” he asked.
Get the answer to that and other questions by watching this week’s episode of Political Pulse in the video player above.
