Both houses of the state Legislature have passed a budget and Gov. Josh Shapiro has signed it, but this being Pennsylvania, that doesn’t mean that the state government has an actual budget.

Lawmakers still must adopt code bills for each major area of the budget — education, health and human services, environmental protection, and so on — which are the equivalent of federal appropriations bills that authorize distribution and spending of the money in the budget.

Lawmakers, apparently worn out from the approximately six weeks of work that they have put in since the beginning of the year, have hightailed it out of Harrisburg after failing to complete their work. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene Sept. 18; the House has not set a date.

Shapiro campaigned on support for school choice and, as governor, indicated that he would sign a $100 million scholarship program to give public tax money to private schools. But he vetoed that provision after the House approved the budget, with some Republican support. Senate Republicans say Shapiro reneged on a promise; Shapiro says the Senate should have worked out the budget with the House before passing its own version.

So Pennsylvanians can expect something familiar — budgetary gridlock. But lawmakers should not allow the acrimony to bleed into other public policy that is important to millions of Pennsylvanians.

Foremost among those matters is increasing the minimum wage.

Scranton City Council and the Cognetti administration have joined other municipal governments across the state in urging the Legislature to pass a bill that would increase the minimum wage in increments until it reaches $15 an hour in 2026. Then it would be tied to an inflation index by which it automatically would rise unless the Legislature votes specifically against it — the exact system that lawmakers use for their own compensation.

Pennsylvania has the lowest minimum wage in the Northeast, the same $7.25 national rate that took effect in 2009. Even if lawmakers pass the current bill, the base rate in Pennsylvania still will be below those of most surrounding states, which have not suffered the economic cataclysms that minimum-wage increase opponents predict.

The Legislature, which also precludes local governments from establishing higher minimums, should not allow the budget impasse to further delay economic justice for Pennsylvania workers.

— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre/ TNS