Pennsylvania Has Budget Peace A Week Early

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on Pennsylvania's budget legislation (all times local):
8:50 p.m.
Pennsylvania has budget peace, for now, and spending authorization intact a week early for the upcoming fiscal year.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday signed a $32.7 billion budget package, avoiding the partisan acrimony and protracted budget fights of his first three years in office.
Wolf's signatures came in the hours after the Republican-controlled Legislature sent a flurry of budget bills to his desk, barely three days after first details of the no-new-taxes package were unveiled.
The package boosts spending through the state's main bank account by $700 million, or 2 percent, largely for schools, social services, pensions and prisons. However, critics say it masks the true spending increase by shifting roughly $900 million in Medicaid costs off-budget.
The fiscal year begins July 1.
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1 p.m.
The main appropriations bill in a $32.7 billion spending package for Pennsylvania's approaching fiscal year is heading to Gov. Tom Wolf's desk, more than a week early.
The Senate voted 47-2 on Friday, three days after first details of the no-new-taxes package were unveiled. The bill passed the House overwhelmingly Wednesday and Wolf supports it after negotiating it with Republican majority leaders.
The package boosts spending through the state's main operating account by $700 million, or 2 percent, largely for schools, social services, pensions and prisons. However, critics say it masks the true spending increase by sending roughly $900 million in Medicaid costs off-budget.
Hundreds of pages of budget-related bills are pending, including guidelines for a new $60 million off-budget school-safety grant program.
The new fiscal year begins July 1.
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11 a.m.
A final vote is approaching for the main appropriations bill in a $32.7 billion spending package for Pennsylvania's approaching fiscal year.
Friday's scheduled Senate vote comes three days after first details of the no-new-taxes package were unveiled. The bill passed the House overwhelmingly Wednesday and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf supports it after negotiating it Republican majority leaders.
The package boost spending through the state's main operating account by $700 million, or 2 percent. The increase goes largely to schools, social services, pensions and prisons. However, critics say it masks the true spending increase by sending roughly $900 million in Medicaid costs off-budget.
Hundreds of pages of budget-related bills also are being prepared, including guidelines for a new $60 million off-budget school safety grant program.
The new fiscal year begins July 1.