PHILLY.COM / AP: …Tax collections have been disappointing. Costs are rising by more than $1 billion a year, primarily for health care for the poor and public employee pensions. Gov. Tom Corbett, the Republican seeking a second term in the Nov. 4 election against Democrat Tom Wolf, and the Republican-controlled Legislature have been unwilling to support a broad-based tax increase to balance the state’s operating budget.
But even after Republicans engineered cuts to education and certain health care and social service programs, the state is still facing a massive deficit that budget analysts expect will hit $2 billion next year, if not more…
Corbett arrived at a difficult time in 2011. Temporary federal aid to bail out recession-wracked state budgets was expiring, and pension costs were increasing after years of state government putting off its obligations. The result was a multibillion-dollar deficit, and he says the highlight of his administration was closing it without raising taxes… (more)
