Mar 28, 2016 3 min read

To paraphrase Gerald Ford, our commonwealth’s long nightmare is over.

Well, “nightmare” might be an excessively strong word to describe the nine-month impasse over the 2015-16 state budget, which more or less came to an end last week when Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said he would let a $6.6 billion appropriations bill sent to him by Republican legislators become law without his signature. Let’s face it, for most of us the budget fiasco was more of a fever dream, with elements of farce thrown in for good measure. It was certainly not a sweet dream for schools or nonprofit agencies that rely heavily on state funding.

But be warned: We’re not on the cusp of a long spell of comity in Harrisburg. There’s a 2016-17 budget due in just three months, and the conflicts over whether to raise taxes or cut spending and how to close a looming deficit that could come close to $2 billion are still hanging out there, still unresolved, ripe for yet more disputation among lawmakers, and more dismay from their constituents.

To recap, Wolf and the Republican-majority Legislature were at loggerheads since last spring over a $30 billion budget, with the governor wanting increases in various taxes in order to increase aid to schools and close a budget deficit that Wolf has described as “a time bomb” that could result in “a fiscal catastrophe the likes of which we have never seen.”

In a note-for-note replication of the gridlock that grips Washington, D.C., Republicans have countered that it’s not revenues that need to be increased, but spending that needs to be lowered. Wolf vetoed two budget proposals, and used a line-item veto on a third, which allowed crucial funding to get to cash-starved school districts. He appeared to be on the brink of using his veto pen again on the appropriations bill. But when it appeared that Democrats would join with Republicans to override it, after many school districts said they were in danger of closing without state aid, Wolf relented.

All told, the entire package resembles one of the budgets that the governor had previously vetoed.

No one has walked away from this battle covered in glory. Much of Wolf’s ambitious agenda remains unfulfilled, at least for now, and legislators, never a popular crowd in the best of circumstances, appeared intransigent. Wolf has said that, at least, he has called attention to the budget deficit. With the sides still far apart and the atmosphere more poisonous than ever, no one should put any money on the 2016-17 budget being delivered by the June 30 deadline. The same issues will almost certainly be making encore appearances – a severance tax on the Marcellus Shale industry, liquor store privatization, pension reform, property tax relief, sales taxes and increased spending on the commonwealth’s schools.

Many of the candidates vying to replace the current batch of legislators have pledged that, if they are sent to Harrisburg, they would be willing to compromise with their opponents and not let a similar standoff occur again.

Some have even said they would forgo a paycheck during a budget impasse. We’ll see if that holds if they are elected. But the commonwealth’s residents have every right to be disappointed in how the budget battle has unfolded over the last nine months.

And, alas, there’s more to come.

We have to conclude by paraphrasing another well-known American, this time Bette Davis in the Hollywood classic “All About Eve”: You’d better fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.