Pennsylvania’s budget is now 23 days late. Few concrete details are known about the status of ongoing talks involving Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and the leaders of the Republican-controlled state Senate and the Democratic-controlled state House.

As Spotlight PA reported July 18: “Late budgets have become the norm in Harrisburg. But when impasses stretch longer than a week or two, local governments and nonprofits that rely on state money to pay their bills invariably begin to worry. Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts face particular fiscal uncertainty.”

State lawmakers play by a different set of rules than the rest of us. This is the 14th time in the past 21 years they’ve been late on the budget, according to Spotlight PA.

In our daily lives, such negligence has consequences. When we miss a bill payment or a work deadline, we are held accountable.

Members of Pennsylvania’s bloated and extremely well-paid government, however, rarely face that same accountability. Deadlines are seemingly just another passing day on the calendar.

Consequences exist, though. It’s just that lawmakers aren’t the ones who suffer them.

First up, there are public school districts. They’re not allowed to miss their June 30 budget deadline and often must pass budgets without knowledge of exactly what they’ll be receiving in state and federal funding.

With talks in Harrisburg now dragging into their fourth week past the deadline, those school districts are feeling some pressure.

“Cash reserves vary from district to district and may be earmarked for capital expenses like new school buildings, rather than operating expenses like staff salaries and utilities,” Spotlight PA noted in its July 18 article.

A Delaware County school director interviewed for that article said she’s been bombarded with questions about what the impasse means for various programs.

She has no answers. “It does undermine public confidence when I have to sit up there and say, ‘Not sure about this, not sure about this, not sure about this,'” she told Spotlight PA.

But that’s on lawmakers, not her — or on any other school directors in Lancaster County or across the state who are being put in a bind.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education told Spotlight PA that payments for adult basic education and the Early Intervention, Pre-K Counts and Head Start programs were set to cease this past Monday. And by July 31, the department will start missing payments for special education and community colleges. If the impasse continues into August, the situation gets even worse for education funding.

Some uncertainty hovers over the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education as well — the system is increasing tuition for 10 state universities, but it could scale back the tuition hike or eliminate it completely if the state follows through with an extra $40 million in funding.

But those universities can’t wait around for Harrisburg to finalize the budget. Tuition bills incorporating the increase are being sent out. If it turns out that overpayments are made, those funds will likely be credited toward future tuition bills.

That’s not ideal for students and families on tight budgets. And, again, it’s due to lawmakers’ inability to meet a deadline.

Those elected officials have said in various interviews that the budgeting process is “tedious work” that is “not easy” and involves “very deep philosophical differences.”

As a June 27 Spotlight PA article explains, “There are two major parts of the budget. One is a spending plan that provides a blueprint for the commonwealth’s financial outlays and revenue collections for the fiscal year. The other consists of one or more code bills, pieces of legislation that specify how money is spent, and can include dozens of policy tweaks.”

Within this framework, Republicans and Democrats are haggling intensely over education funding, absorbing new Medicaid costs, mass transit, the regulation and taxing of skill games, the potential legalization of recreational marijuana and how to balance spending and revenues to stave off future tax hikes.

It’s complicated, for sure.

But if you know something is going to be complex and fraught with disagreement, start talks earlier.

Instead, lawmakers are again giving themselves the luxury of blowing past a deadline they were obligated to meet.

But the luxury of extra time will not be granted to the public discourse once a closed-door deal on the budget is reached. An agreement will be announced, both parties will claim victory and the thick legislation will move swiftly through both chambers en route to the governor’s desk for a signature.

Then the procrastinators will pat themselves on the back and likely get a summer vacation. They’ll believe it was well-earned. Whether we agree is something we as voters get to decide in the next election.

The Pennsylvania budget should be completed on time, in the daylight and with maximum opportunity for public feedback.

That’s a far cry from where we are right now, but we don’t think it’s asking a lot.

— LNP, Lancaster via TNS