Pennsylvania Passes Budget, Big Tax Increases

Pennsylvania lawmakers approved a $13.9-billion spending plan Sunday, more than a month late, and the largest tax increase in state history to pay for it.

The state’s House, without debate, voted to approve $2.85 billion in new taxes, including a nearly 50% increase in the personal income tax and heftier levies on business.

The plan resolved a legislative impasse that had held up paychecks for thousands of state workers. Gov. Robert P. Casey was at the Capitol and would sign the measure when it reached his desk, spokesman Vincent Carocci said.

In Connecticut, meanwhile, legislators Sunday rushed to rally support for a hastily drafted budget with no income tax. They hoped to break that state’s 35-day-old budget deadlock before a stopgap budget expired at midnight, threatening another shutdown of state services.

The plan would increase taxes by $740 million and delay payments to retire the state’s $937-million deficit. Total state spending would be $7.58 billion.

It was unclear if Connecticut Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. would accept the no-income-tax budget if it passed. He twice vetoed similar budgets, and furloughed 20,000 state workers for three days in early July. Last week, he ordered state commissioners to prepare for another shutdown today.

Weicker, elected last year as an independent, has argued that only an income tax can solve the state’s chronic fiscal problems without deeply harming its already depressed economy. Connecticut is one of 10 states without an income tax.