There’s a lot for Pennsylvanians to like in the budget bill that members of the state House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 188-10 to advance to the state Senate.

There’s no tax increase; more money for public schools, early education and school safety; and — perhaps most importantly — it appears that the state’s spending plan might actually be on-time and come complete with the fiscal code bills that are vital parts of the budget document.

After three years of embarrassment — including a protracted budget fight in 2015 that cost counties and school districts millions of dollars — lawmakers are poised to discharge their constitutionally-mandated responsibilities in a timely and responsible manner.

Cue the streamers and balloons in Harrisburg, where members of the House on Wednesday appeared nearly giddy with pleasure at the result of months of back room talks between Republican leaders and Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf.

The problem with celebrating this is laid bare by the comments of state Rep. Jim Marshall, R-14th, who calmly and correctly pointed out that, well, this is all kind of supposed to be par for the course each year.

“We should have timely budgets,” Marshall told a Butler Eagle reporter Wednesday, when asked about the excitement surrounding the bill’s quick pace through the legislature. “We’ve been working on it since last October. We are nearly in the last week, and I believe we still will be there next week, finishing up the budget.”

A timely budget is certainly something to celebrate after three years of abject failure. But we can’t escape the conclusion that this no-drama spending plan is the result not of actual progress on fiscal priorities, but of November’s general election — which will see all 203 House seats, 25 Senate seats, and the governor’s office up for grabs.

Of course, with that in mind, elected officials saw no need to remind voters of how messy and expensive their disagreements have been in recent years. Of course they saw no reason to raise taxes — why not just effectively push that duty onto local school boards and municipal governments?

Of course they don’t want people to remember that they can’t seem to find a solution to a multi-billion-dollar pension crisis that only continues to metastasize.

If we’ve learned anything from the last three budget cycles, it’s that our elected officials are incapable of having these difficult discussions in a responsible and productive way.

One election year budget that comes in on time and is notable for little else won’t convince us otherwise.