Hanna talks state budget with constituents

At a town hall Wednesday, State Rep. Mike Hanna, D-Lock Haven, discussed the state of the budget with his constituents.

While lawmakers passed an almost $32 billion spending plan in June, they have yet to pass a revenue bill — putting the state in the third month of a budget stalemate.

The state recently missed its first “big” payments to Medicare providers, he said.

“We are under a deadline. Obviously the constitutional deadline was July 1,” Hanna said. “But now we’re under what I consider an even more serious deadline in the sense that we cannot continue to miss payments that we authorized when we passed the spending plan.”

The state House and Senate each have versions of a revenue plan, but neither chamber has accepted the other’s, Hanna said.

Hanna said he didn’t support the House version because it significantly raided a bunch of funds because it was trying to avoid the Marcellus Shale tax, which is in the Senate version.

Some of those funds include the insurance fund, which provides oversight on insurance companies, and economic development funds, he said.

The Marcellus Shale tax is a recurring form of revenue that Pennsylvania is long overdue to collect, Hanna said.

He said hopefully next week a compromise plan can be negotiated.

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Hanna talks state budget with constituents."