Legislative cowardice

Amid all the loud talk in Harrisburg about passing a budget, including a tea-party Republican's blabbering about placing a boot on Gov. Wolf's neck and Wolf's calling a proposed GOP budget "garbage," there has been a strange silence about a necessary ingredient to any spending plan - how to pay for it.

The public has heard next to nothing about generating the revenue needed to cover expenses since efforts to hike the sales tax evaporated weeks ago. No one has floated a tax bill with bipartisan support. And as the state's April 26 primary election looms ever closer, it's becoming doubtful that anyone will.

With a $2 billion deficit, a declining credit rating, and many services already cut to untenable levels, a tax increase seems unavoidable. Legislators trying to ignore that reality are only making a bad situation even worse.

Wolf and leaders in the House and Senate reached a fragile compromise in November that they hoped would end the stalemate over the now historically late budget, but it failed to win passage. Bills introduced since then have not shown how to provide the extra money promised to schools or fix the state's structural deficit.

If Democratic and Republican leaders have a tax bill in mind, they aren't sharing the full details with all the members of their caucuses. But without full disclosure and debate, they won't be able to guarantee the votes needed to pass their plan. It's time to get it all out in the open. The continuing silence on taxes is undermining the credibility of all involved. Without revenue, there can be no spending.

Republicans derailed Wolf's earlier efforts to impose a shale-gas extraction tax, but a new proposal by a GOP legislator may have reopened that door. A bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Christiana (R., Beaver) falls far short of adequately funding education. But the governor's office said it's willing to talk about it.

That would be a start, but too often in this seven months of convulsing budget talks, starts have turned into stumbles. Negotiations are so frustrating that some Republican moderates are bailing out. Meanwhile, their leaders wring their hands in fear of primary challenges from tea-party candidates.

Instead of fighting election foes who have yet to materialize, legislators need to confront the very real problem that's staring them in the face - the lack of a state budget. It would be a cowardly affront to their constituents to avoid the words "tax increase" until after the election. The best way for the skittish to keep their jobs is by doing their jobs.

If more spending cuts can be made without hurting the state's most vulnerable citizens, propose them. But none have been proposed thus far, which suggests it's time - past time - to find the courage to introduce a tax bill that would pay for the services taxpayers want and need.