HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf holds a political science doctorate, but these days he’s a freshman with an incomplete in the first big test of his administration — getting a budget through the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Pennsylvania is now more than three weeks into its new fiscal year without a spending plan in place, raising an obvious question about what happened to the Democrat’s often stated intention to be, as he said at his January inauguration, “an unconventional governor” who will work across the aisle.

Last week saw the first glimmer of hope that a deal might be possible, when he and GOP negotiators emerged from behind closed doors to make upbeat sounds about progress and announce they’ll meet again soon.

Bipartisanship was a recurring theme during Wolf’s first two major speeches, at his inauguration and the budget address in March.

“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,” Wolf said in January. “I believe we can.”

But by the time Republicans rammed through a budget of their own late last month, along with proposals to privatize liquor sales and cut public-sector pensions, the partisanship that characterizes the Capitol was on full display.

Not a single Democrat voted for the budget, liquor or pension bills, and Wolf quickly vetoed all three.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, credits Wolf for reaching out to meet with all of the General Assembly’s 253 members and for striking a bipartisan tone early on. But the vetoes, negative advertising that targets Republican members and the negotiations themselves have been a different story, he said.

“As far as negotiating goes, he’s been more of a traditional ideologue, as opposed to a different type of governor,” Reed said. “I’m still hopeful that governor is going to show up. We’ve seen glimpses of it, particularly on pension reform.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said attack ads and mailings have caused “collateral damage” to the Wolf-GOP relationship.

“He has nothing to be bitter about in life, but there’s somebody awful bitter in his ear that continues to, I guess the word to use, crank up this acrimony against legislators,” Scarnati said. “The goodwill he may have built up is gone.”

Wolf gives himself high marks, saying at a news conference last week that “we’ve done so many things” in six months, among them squeezing savings from an efficiency initiative, imposing an executive branch gift ban and equipping state police with an emergency heroin overdose treatment.

He predicted his efforts at bipartisanship will bear fruit.

“I think there’s been probably some testing, but I have reached out, I think I did what I said I was going to do,” including the meetings with members, he said. “It already has and will continue to pay great dividends as we go through the process of reaching agreement on the budget.”

In the Legislature, he faces Republicans emboldened by a series of electoral victories.

“Someone in the administration failed to tell the governor somewhere along the line that these (Republican) majorities got stronger, these majorities got more conservative in fiscal matters,” Scarnati said.

His aides argue that Wolf has moved toward the other side on pensions when it comes to limiting “spiking” that can drive up benefits and sharing the risk, and on aspects of a shale drilling tax.

“Those are major compromises, major efforts to meet them halfway,” said press secretary Jeff Sheridan, “and he was met with nothing. They wouldn’t have a conversation about this stuff. This is after months of reaching out to them.”

House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, said Wolf’s outreach to Republicans doesn’t mean he’ll capitulate on the issues.

“It’s not like he’s going to say, ‘OK, we’ll do exactly what you want,”’ Dermody said. “If the other side just says, no, it’s my way or the highway, well then, I don’t know that you’ve given him much choice, other than to do what he’s done, and what he’s doing right now.”

Muhlenberg College political science professor Chris Borick said the governor’s first-year experience illustrates how an aspiration for bipartisanship can run into the practical challenges of trying to solve large, complex fiscal problems.

“It’s a tough goal to reach, simply because there are stark differences in ideologies and philosophies regarding government and what role government should play,” Borick said. “The goal, I think, is sincere. I think he probably has hoped and still hopes for good relations with Republicans, but it’s easier said than done.”

In his budget address, Wolf called for “a robust conversation” in which his opponents would suggest their own ideas.

“It’s not good enough to just say no and continue with the same old same old,” he told lawmakers. “That’s our responsibility to the people of Pennsylvania. They may have voted for divided government, but they did not vote for gridlock.”

At this point, that’s what they’ve got.