County officials, top Dem object, but Pa. House GOP OKs pared-down budget bill

HARRISBURG -- House Republicans on Tuesday sent the Senate a pared-down budget bill over the objections of Democrats and county commissioners, who warned that the funding cuts could lead to property-tax increases.

The House approved the legislation by 114-84, with all Democrats and a few Republicans opposed.

House GOP leaders on Monday had unveiled the plan, which would spend $31.5 billion in the fiscal year that begins July 1, about $800 million less than the budget Gov. Wolf proposed in February.

The Republican-crafted budget would trim spending throughout government, including in areas such as human services and prisons.

"This budget may not be perfect, but this budget accomplishes many core goals that we as Republicans and Democrats say that we stand together on," Majority Leader Dave Reed (R., Indiana) said on the House floor.

Minority Leader Frank Dermody (D., Allegheny) said the Republican budget had been written without input from Democrats. He said the plan falls short of the governor's proposal in its funding of early-childhood education and child care.

Earlier Tuesday, the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania issued a statement expressing "grave concerns" about the proposal. The proposed cuts to funding for human services and criminal justice could lead local governments to increase property taxes, the association said.

"While the proposal before the House today is only the first step in legislative consideration of 2017-2018 funding, it represents a starting point that counties cannot support," the association's statement said. "This is clearly not a no-tax-increase budget. Any vote for this budget is a vote for property tax increases."

The Senate is scheduled to return to the Capitol in two weeks.

The state budget typically is the subject of intense negotiations in the final weeks of the state's fiscal year.