Pennsylvania governor relents after 9-month budget impasse

(AP) — Pennsylvania's epic budget stalemate ended Wednesday when the Democratic governor backed off a recent veto threat, leaving just slivers of his once-ambitious agenda intact after nine months of partisan gridlock that threatened to shutter schools and forced layoffs at social service agencies.

Gov. Tom Wolf's drive for a multibillion-dollar tax increase from a Republican-controlled Legislature to fund a record increase in public school aid ultimately fell far short— he got half the aid he wanted — and fueled a budget fight without parallel in the state's modern history.

The budget includes a 3 percent increase in overall spending, but it does so without a multibillion-dollar tax increase that Wolf had sought to deliver a record boost in aid to public schools and wipe out a long-term deficit that has damaged Pennsylvania's credit rating.

At one point, Wolf had negotiated a deal with top Republican lawmakers that revolved around a 6 percent spending increase and a $1-billion-plus tax increase to reverse post-recession cuts to public schools and human services and to narrow the deficit.

In recent months, school officials, editorial boards and others have heaped scorn on Harrisburg over the budget fight, which pits a central element of the Democratic agenda, more education funding, against a key Republican tenet, avoiding additional taxes.