Pa. budget talks enter new week with no news of a deal on taxes

Negotiators are reporting no agreement on financing Pennsylvania state government’s $31.5 billion budget plan.

The state House and Senate weren’t scheduled to resume session Tuesday. It’s the fifth day of the 2016-17 fiscal year and a divide over tax increases is dragging out negotiations between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Negotiators say more than $1 billion is necessary to balance the state’s deficit-riddled finances.

Lawmakers last week sent the main spending bill in the budget package to Wolf. But Wolf says he won’t sign it without sustainable revenues to fund it. He has until midnight next Monday to make a decision on it before it becomes law without his signature.

Meanwhile, spending bills authorizing hundreds of millions of dollars for state-subsidized universities and college tuition grants remain in the House.