Following each year’s early February annual budget address, the Appropriations Committees of both the PA State House and State Senate hold about three weeks of hearings with the cabinet secretaries of most executive branch departments and agencies. These hearings are a very direct opportunity for the elected bi-partisan representatives to question the Wolf Administration on its operating policies, agenda, and its financial plan. As we cross over the one-year mark on the COVID-19 pandemic, there is particular interest in the handling of matters related to our ongoing health crisis. 

Our elected friends of small business will use the opportunity of the hearings to raise questions and concerns. The duration and nature of mandated business closures, difficulties in the management of vaccination distribution, and the Wolf Administrations disastrous proposals to increase small business income taxes by 46% and increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour, all will be points of focus as cabinet secretaries are sworn in and begin to field questions from both Republican and Democratic members. 

Ultimately, the hearings help further the process of completing an annual spending plan for the state – a plan which must be completed by June 30^th according to the Pennsylvania Constitution.  While the hearings do give a public airing to financial and government policy concerns, the crunch time for both sides to hammer out the final plan will occur during the last two weeks of June.

You can count on NFIB of Pennsylvania to be pushing hard on our small business issues over these months and especially during the June budget crunch. Throughout this timeframe, please join in NFIB’s Action Alert process to send messages to the Capitol in Harrisburg.  Your messages landing on the right desks bring our advocacy to life and help keep small business issues at the forefront. Working together, we can move the Wolf Budget Plan toward a much more business-friendly result.