Savannah Thorpe, Lancaster, joins with multiple groups rallying on the steps of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., to lobby lawmakers into spending more of the federal relief money on students, the poor and other communities of need, Wednesday, June 23, 2021.

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's plans for its share of coronavirus relief and a potential boost in education funding are among the issues being negotiated as lawmakers and the governor entered the final week of their budget year on Thursday.

Leaders said the 2021-22 budget could wrap up this weekend, but details were scanty as high-level negotiations continued inside the Capitol.

House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre, sounded an optimistic tone about the end game.

“I don't think there's anything tough left to do, it's just all part of a process, there's a lot of intricate parts,” Benninghoff said.

Rep. Peter Schweyer, a veteran Democratic member from Lehigh County, said it's always a good bet that budget talks will take longer than projected.

“This time of year the Harrisburg rumor mill is the Harrisburg rumor mill,” Schweyer said. “It could be anything from a happy, kumbaya budget that's going to fund education to everything's catastrophically bad. And I've heard both, depending on who you talk to.”

Wolf in February asked the Republican-controlled Legislature to boost state spending to $37.8 billion for the 2021-22 fiscal year starting July 1. Including a supplemental cash request of more than $1 billion to cover cost overruns in the current fiscal year, Wolf is seeking authorization for nearly $6 billion more in new spending, or almost 18% more than this year's $33.1 billion approved budget.

Stronger-than-expected tax collections turned last year's projections of a multibillion-dollar deficit into a multibillion-dollar surplus. Budget analysts now project a surplus of just above $3 billion for the 2020-21 fiscal year ending June 30, or a total of just over $40 billion.

“The Pennsylvania House Democrats are fighting very hard to make sure we fairly fund the schools with the $3 billion dollar surplus,” said House Minority Leader Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, adding that they also want hazard pay for front-line workers.The current year's $33.1 billion approved budget was balanced with more than $3.3 billion in federal pandemic aid and transferring more than $500 million from off-budget state accounts. Counting the federal pandemic aid, spending was almost $36.5 billion. In other words, using the federal pandemic aid lowered the reliance on state tax dollars from $36.5 billion to $33.1 billion.

Pennsylvania House Minority Leader Joanna McClinton speaks at a rally on the steps of the Pennsylvania State Capitol urging lawmakers to use federal relief funds to rebuild communities, respond to the Covid-19 crisis and address inequities in the state, in Harrisburg, Pa., Wednesday, Jun. 23, 2021.