Warning Should Have Taxpayers on Alert

Pennsylvania’s state budget looks like an awful lot like a bucket with a hole in the bottom – taxpayers keep filling it up, but billions of dollars keep leaking out.

The latest projections show a $1 billion increase in state revenues will pour in next year, according to the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog. That’s good news; it means our economy is growing.

Then there’s the hole in the bucket – and it’s a big one.

The IFO predicts a nearly $3 billion spending increase leading to a $1.7 billion budget shortfall. That’s a massive deficit, the likes of which, in prio...