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Trump: “I’m smart and stable”

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Evoking Elvis: Local tribute artist calls act ‘an escape’

<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) &#8212; Just in time for his re-election campaign, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is perhaps the most optimistic person in Pennsylvania.</p><p>He sees better days ahead for the state&#8217;s finances, says he&#8217;s satisfied with his first-term progress and shows no frustration over battling the huge Republican majorities that control the Legislature.</p><p>Four weeks before he releases his fourth and final first-term budget plan, Wolf seems to see state government&#8217;s post-recession deficits in the rear-view mirror and touted his work across the political aisle.</p><p>In an interview with The Associated Press, Wolf did not foresee needing a budget-balancing tax increase in a second term.</p><p>&#8220;What deficit would I be filling with a tax increase?&#8221; he questioned Tuesday.</p><p>Negotiating budgets under Wolf has absorbed an inordinate amount of time and energy over the past three years, including two protracted partisan stalemates over how to deal with massive deficits.</p><p>Wolf remains less than halfway to his original goal of a $2 billion education funding increase, but having won enough new money for schools that Wolf says districts struggling the most under the state&#8217;s 2011 cuts in aid are doing better.</p><p>Wolf also has not achieved a major first-term aim to overhaul Pennsylvania&#8217;s heavy reliance on property taxes to fund schools, seen as a driving force behind inequities between wealthy and poorer school districts.</p><p>But Wolf does not discount that he has the ability to accomplish it eventually with a Republican-controlled Legislature.</p><p>&#8220;I believe that we can continue to work together,&#8221; Wolf said. &#8220;Obviously it would be easier if I had a little more help from the Legislature, but I&#8217;m very proud of what I&#8217;ve been able to do, given what I&#8217;ve got.&#8221;</p><p>When he took office three years ago, Wolf inherited a projected multibillion-dollar deficit and he floated a multibillion-dollar tax increase, the first of three straight annual increases he proposed, each $1 billion or more.</p><p>Republican lawmakers rejected much of it. Eventually, they approved a grab-bag tax package, anchored by a cigarette tax increase, of roughly $1 billion a year.</p><p>Meanwhile, Wolf bowed to Republican plans for an aggressive expansion of casino-style gambling and a host of one-time budgeting maneuvers, including borrowing $1.5 billion to backfill Pennsylvania&#8217;s biggest cash shortfall since the recession.</p><p>It is the most money in memory the state has borrowed to finance operations, current and former state officials say.</p><p>While it wasn&#8217;t Wolf&#8217;s idea, he still defends the state&#8217;s current fiscal condition.</p><p>&#8220;Pennsylvania is now on a very solid financial foundation in a way that it wasn&#8217;t just two-and-a-half, three years ago,&#8221; Wolf said.</p><p>When Wolf arrived in 2015, he inherited what he has repeatedly hammered as &#8220;smoke and mirrors&#8221; budgeting and &#8220;kicking the can down the road.&#8221;</p><p>Independent analysts suggest Pennsylvania&#8217;s finances are still riddled with the sort of budget gimmickry that Wolf has criticized &#8212; something that Wolf rejects &#8212; and see a more immediate deficit than does Wolf&#8217;s administration.</p><p>Pennsylvania&#8217;s future finances are also rife with risk: its borrowing and Medicaid costs are growing, its population is aging quickly and its economy is expected to expand more slowly than the national average.</p><p>Still, Wolf&#8217;s administration has had the good fortune to see slowing increases in pension obligations, a shrinking prison population and smaller-than-expected increases in Medicaid costs.</p><p>It has squeezed out savings by closing a prison and reducing personnel across state agencies, while scrounging enough cash to give a big increase to programs for the intellectually disabled and launch an effort under Medicaid to care for the elderly in their homes, rather than nursing facilities.</p><p>When he presents his fourth budget Feb. 3, Wolf will propose a tax increase on Marcellus Shale natural gas production for a fourth straight year. Securing its passage &#8212; a prominent 2014 campaign theme &#8212; is what Wolf calls his biggest first-term challenge and a matter of fairness, rather than fiscal necessity.</p><p>Republicans who are lining up to challenge Wolf&#8217;s re-election bid in November will criticize his push for tax increases.</p><p>Wolf said he will run on a record of bipartisan accomplishments.</p><p>&#8220;What I&#8217;m going to run on is actually delivering on a number of things that I said I was doing to do,&#8221; Wolf said. &#8220;And yes, I didn&#8217;t do it with a Democratic House or a Democratic Senate. I did it with an overwhelming Republican General Assembly. And yet I&#8217;ve gotten things done.&#8221;</p><p>___</p><p>Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/timelywriter. His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/marc_levy</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">In this Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018 photo, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at his office in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_119549525-6f2f77b8a5d64291b74c117b68ee3268-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>In this Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018 photo, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at his office in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Marc Levy-Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

Full of optimism, Gov. Wolf prepares for re-election