Pennsylvania to begin fiscal year without a budget

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania's new fiscal year will begin without a state budget in place, as Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration and top Republican lawmakers haltingly worked through Thursday's deadline to hammer out a roughly $42 billion spending plan whose details were still largely being kept secret.Negotiators had yet to fully brief rank-and-file lawmakers on any sort of agreement or publish the details of hundreds of pages of budget-related legislation that typically underpin such a spending plan.Efforts to settle final details in the sprawling budget package came with 11th-hour wrangling over a number of issues, including pressure by Republicans for Wolf to agree to election-related legislation that has roots in former President Donald Trump's baseless claims Democrats stole the 2020 election.The state’s bank account is flush with billions in extra cash — tax receipts boosted by inflation and an economy juiced with federal pandemic subsidies — but the extra money in a state accustomed to deficits hasn't necessarily solved problems.Without new budget legislation signed into law by Friday, the state will lose the authority to make some payments, although a stalemate must typically last several weeks before any effect on services is felt.Both the House and Senate scheduled weekend voting sessions in an effort to finish a budget package before Independence Day.Missing the budget deadline has revived memories of protracted, monthslong budget fights between Wolf and the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2015 and 2017.Starting the fiscal year without a budget in place isn't "preferable, but the most important thing is to get it right and that's what we're doing," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Pat Browne,.