Yo, Guv-elect, ready for the hard part?

FOR TOM WOLF the easy part is over.

His money, demeanor and running against America's most vulnerable incumbent yesterday combined to make him governor-elect.

And in a way that made history: He's the first candidate to break a 68-year state cycle of electing governors of different parties every eight years. It's a cycle that extended way back before we allowed governors two terms.

But now what?

Now Wolf, a progressive Democratic newcomer, faces governing the least-progressive Northeastern state, known for its love of the status quo.

He faces doing so with a Legislature controlled by Republican majorities that couldn't get along with the Republican governor Wolf just beat.

And he takes the reins in January in a still-sluggish economy, in a state with a public-pension gap approaching $50 billion and looking down the barrel of a budget due in June already projected to carry a deficit of $1 billion or more.

Oh, and if he wants to keep campaign promises?

He needs to get GOP lawmakers to commit to more money for schools, a new tax on natural gas and an overhaul of the state's income tax that's certain to cost higher-income (read: Republican) taxpayers more.

So the words "tall order" spring to mind; as do the words "welcome to Wolf trap."

Even some Democrats privately worry that a new untested executive in the unforgiving ideological backwaters of Harrisburg could be in over his head.

"Think," says one Democratic insider, "of the excitement around the elections of Barack Obama and Kathleen Kane, two other 'firsts,' and the letdown for both that's happened since."

Too cynical too soon?

Well, let's look at what awaits Wolf in the way of assistance for his agenda.

For starters, House GOP leaders were talking about holding a news conference today to say Wolf has no mandate to raise taxes.

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai says Wolf "will have a difficult time increasing any taxes," including a natural-gas severance tax.

And Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi cites "skepticism" in the Senate.

Asked about receptivity to a severance tax or changing the income tax, Pileggi says Wolf needs to "clarify exactly in legislative detail" what he wants to do, adding that Wolf's offered "no single proposal that's developed enough" to judge.

But Pileggi sees "very little if any support" for increases in broad-based taxes such as those on sales or income, and expects early 2015 to be devoted to balancing a budget in what, even without new spending, will "be a difficult year."

Democratic leaders also are reserved.

House Minority Leader Frank Dermody sees a "pretty dismal budget outlook." Asked if Wolf's historic electoral feat gives him some political advantage in dealing with lawmakers, Dermody says, "I don't know what the advantage would be, given the budget."

But Wolf all along has said he's spent a successful business career working with others to find solutions.

And former Gov. Ed Rendell, who had his share of run-ins with the Legislature, seems optimistic about Wolf's prospects.

"I think he's well-suited by personality and experience to deal effectively" with Harrisburg, Rendell says. "The key is understanding if you get 70 percent, 80 percent of what you want, that's real progress, because you never get 100 percent."

If there's a silver lining in the clouds over Wolf's win, it could be in the fact a new school-funding formula is in the works and a big deficit could push lawmakers toward a severance tax on gas drillers.

But Pennsylvania's long-running partisanship might prove tougher to break than its long-running electoral history.

In the words of Rendell, "I expected it would be partisan . . . I never knew the depth of the partisanship . . . it never got any better, even in the second term."

For Wolf that means the easy part is over.

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