A few hours before Wednesday’s vote on Gov. Tom Wolf’s scaled-down package of tax increases, one of the governor’s staunchest allies made a compelling statement.

“The vote ... will send a signal to business and workers,” declared Rick Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. “A ‘yes’ vote will mean Pennsylvania is ready to build our infrastructure, grow our businesses and educate our children. A ‘no’ vote is a signal that Pennsylvania will continue the Corbett agenda of job elimination and cuts to education.”

The statement is revealing in its stridency, particularly after this latest tax plan went down in defeat.

Today marks the 100th day without a state budget. Without it since July 1, school districts and human service agencies, among many others, have been forced to seek loans and make contingencies including staff furloughs.

Wolf, a first-term Democrat, appears sometimes to be governing on the premise that voters gave him a mandate to increase taxes. In February, he introduced a budget that included a number of tax hikes totaling $4.6 billion.

At the time, Wolf said he welcomed dialog on any alternative budget ideas. But he also challenged the Republican-dominated Legislature to pass his budget in its entirety — all or nothing.

The GOP rejected Wolf’s budget in its entirety. In its place, they passed their own budget with no tax increase on the eve of the July 1 fiscal new year. The governor vetoed it.

Wolf’s amended proposal, submitted to the House on Tuesday, amounted to $2.4 billion in tax increases — about $2.2 billion less than his first plan. Wolf originally wanted to raise the personal income tax rate from 3.07 percent to 3.7 percent; his revision dropped the increase to 3.57 percent.

Other revisions included a new 3.5 percent tax on natural gas wells, plus 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet; he originally proposed a 5-percent tax plus 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet.

His proposal dropped altogether a 0.6 percent hike in the state sales tax.

Wolf submitted the amendment knowing he’d need about a dozen Republicans in the state House to break ranks and vote with the Democrats.

Instead, nine Democrats voted with the Republicans. The vote was not close — 127-73.

The AFL-CIO chief’s words to the contrary, it’s hard to defend the premise of a mandate for higher taxes.

For one thing, the voters who picked Wolf over incumbent Republican Tom Corbett also elected a House and Senate that are top-heavy with Republicans who predictably have stood in the way of any tax hike. It’s more likely the voters picked Wolf because he isn’t Corbett, many political analysts observed last fall.

For another, the Democrats who voted “no” this time demonstrated a sensitivity to their constituents’ wishes. They defied their party and its leader rather than vote for more taxes.

Finally, the swelling number of “no” votes were for a tax increase that was substantially less than the original.

Now, 100 days past the July 1 deadline, the idea of a more modest tax increase garnered even less support than the earlier, larger hike that also failed.

Wednesday’s vote did not demonstrate anything akin to the scenario that union chief Bloomingdale described.

Instead, the outcome should evaporate any notion that the voters gave Wolf a mandate to raise their taxes.

It was a big setback for the governor — a setback of exactly 100 days, when the ink of his veto of the GOP balanced budget had not yet dried. While he’s back there, maybe he should take another look at what the Republicans had proposed.