For the second time in three years, the Pennsylvania General Assembly has missed its constitutionally mandated June 30 deadline to have a budget adopted.

And once again, Pennsylvania residents, school districts and county and municipal governments are faced with uncertainty and possible increased costs. To add to the pain, they were already left uncertain about the impact of cuts to federal spending.

And the news the Democratic-controlled state House passed a budget Tuesday, July 15, is little comfort, as that budget now faces slim odds of passage in the Republican-controlled state Senate.

Brian White, superintendent of Butler Area School District, explained recently exactly what the delayed budget is doing to local governments and school districts.

“If that budget is impacted, if we get half a million dollars less from the state, what do we do?” White said. “What we’d have to do is dip into our savings. That savings is also how we take care of a roof repair. That savings is how we take care of a crack in the sidewalk. That savings is how we take care of security issues. So we’re spending money we didn’t plan to spend.”

It is irresponsible of our lawmakers to continue to delay fulfilling one of their constitutionally ordained jobs.

As we’ve noted before, Pennsylvania’s lawmakers are the third-highest paid in the nation, with a base salary this year of more than $110,000. That’s far above the median salary for the state.

It’s worth asking, given the failure of the Legislature to pass a budget on time in both 2023 and this year: Don’t the people of our state deserve better?

— JK