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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Gov. Tom Wolf's first budget proposal to the Legislature is due, and supporters say it will be ambitious in its efforts to provide new funding for education and to help local taxpayers shoulder the burden of paying for public schools.
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Wolf is due to deliver his budget and address a joint session of the Legislature before noon Tuesday, as he juggles a budget hole of more than $2 billion, rising costs of more than $1 billion and campaign promises to bring unprecedented help to struggling public schools.
Everything Wolf proposes must be approved by a Republican-controlled Legislature, and many in the Capitol wonder how a liberal Democrat governor and a Legislature dominated by rural and suburban conservatives will come to an agreement on major priorities.
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The Wolf administration has not released many details. Thus far, Democratic lawmakers who have been briefed on the plan are expressing support for it and say Wolf's proposal must be considered as a whole, rather than as pieces.
"This is a comprehensive plan that the governor will be rolling out as we go forward," Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, said. "And that's what's important here: Recognize that there are parts of this plan that all go together in order to have us do what the people have asked this governor to do. So it's all together."
Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, called Wolf's proposal "very bold, very ambitious, very responsible."
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The budget, at $29 billion for this fiscal year, could eclipse $30 billion for the first time, if Wolf meets his campaign pledges to increase education funding by $1 billion or more and to fully fund the state's rising pension obligations. Wolf already has said he would seek corporate tax cuts and higher taxes on natural gas drilling.
In addition to the budget, Wolf is expected to propose an income tax increase, as he proposed during his campaign, in what could be a multibillion-dollar aid package to help reduce school property taxes and shift a portion of the school funding burden onto the state. It is not clear how any property tax aid would be distributed, or whether districts would have to meet conditions before receiving it.
As part of the tax relief, Democrats expect Wolf will propose an expansion of a program that currently offers subsidies for rent or property taxes for the elderly and disabled.