It’s not just what he said. It was the way he said it.

Freshman Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday laid out a clear and concise case for his vision of a better Pennsylvania. Wolf spoke with an air of ease and confidence that his plan will improve conditions for those who live, study and work here.

He’ll need that confidence in the weeks and months ahead as the Democrat negotiates his agenda through a Republican-dominated legislature. Wolf’s $33.3 billion plan increases spending by 16 percent over the current budget of $29.1 billion — an increase that prompted an immediate retort from Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman that “we’re gonna have to start from scratch.”

But Wolf is nothing if he isn’t a pragmatic businessman, one who understands the balance of resources and profits, effectiveness and efficiency. His 40-minute speech never strayed far from his campaign theme that government should be transparent as well as innovative. Wolf’s speech included enough information to show where the additional funding will come from, how it will be spent and how that will benefit taxpayers. At the same time, his plain-language delivery avoided bogging down in unnecessary minutia.

Wolf presented his budget promoting three simple but ambitious themes: teachers who teach, jobs that pay and government that’s effective.

The governor said the additional money for his budget will come from: a 0.6 percent increase in the state sales tax; a 20 percent increase in the personal income tax rate, to 3.7 percent from its current 3.07 percent; and a 5 percent severance tax on natural gas.

There are a few tax cuts at well. Wolf proposed to halve the corporate income tax rate of 9.99 percent, while also proposing to abolish the “Delaware loophole” that allows as many as 70 percent of Pennsylvania corporations to avoid paying it. He also wants to cut property tax rates by about 50 percent, providing relief for homeowners, particularly retirees on fixed incomes.

Any way you cut it, it’s an ambitious and expensive proposal. We can only imagine how much more thoroughly Gov. Corbett would have been beaten if he had proposed a similar budget last year.

Still, Wolf might be able to pull off at least some of his plan, largely because he already has begun to lay the groundwork of a dialogue across the party divide.

“One of the old problems we need to put to rest is the idea that Democrats and Republicans can’t work together to solve Pennsylvania’s problems. I believe we can,” Wolf declared in the opening lines of his address. “And that’s why I have made it a priority the past six weeks to meet with just about every member of this body, both Democrats and Republicans.”

That commitment to keep open the lines of communication, somewhat reminiscent of the sometimes fiery friendship between President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill, sets a tone for conciliatory and maybe even productive governance in Harrisburg for the years ahead.