Harrisburg remains deeply divided over how to best balance the Pennsylvania budget. Lawmakers’ inability to agree on an adequate and stable source of revenue left the state without a budget for most of FY 2016. As unpleasant as that experience was, there was still no budget in place when the new fiscal year started on July 1, 2017. Although the legislature has since agreed on a budget (it became law without the governor’s signature), it is still working to balance it. As it stands, the budget leaves the state with a long-term deficit that could cause a credit rating downgrade.

Governor Tom Wolf’s repeated calls for a higher and broader sales tax have been met with resistance, although his administration did succeed in expanding sales tax to digital downloads as of August 1, 2016. Last year, he abandoned efforts to extend sales tax to movie admissions and other services, and his 2017–2018 budget proposal called for no sales tax expansion. Interestingly, a tax on movie ticket sales, basic cable service, and utilities may, once again, be on the table.