Pandemic changes how state budget will be handled

Budget address to be pre-recorded, Senate hearings postponed

HARRISBURG -- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way the state budget is being handled, just like it did last year.

The ceremony surrounding the governor's budget address -- one of the high points of the civic year at the state Capitol -- will be absent this year.

The Senate budget hearings are being postponed to sometime in the spring while the House budget hearings are on track for a normal timetable.

Gov. Tom Wolf plans to deliver his sixth budget address to the General Assembly using a pre-recorded video in order to avoid a situation where people in close proximity and some without masks could spread the COVID-19 virus, according to his office.

More details will be provided about the presentation of the proposed Fiscal Year 2021-22 state budget later this week, Wolf spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger said Tuesday.

That means the governor won't be standing at the rostrum in the House chamber addressing a joint session of the House and Senate, and he won't be escorted by a special committee of lawmakers.

There most likely will not be a crush of post-address press conferences by the various legislative caucus leaders on the Rotunda balcony. The Capitol Complex is closed to the public so protesters won't be present in the Rotunda.

So, on a day where public attention is usually focused on the fiscal condition of the Commonwealth, things are likely to be disjointed.

But there have been curve balls on budget address days before.

The day's schedule was compressed in 2010 due to an approaching blizzard. Former Gov. Ed Rendell gave his address a day late in 2005 and 2006 to accommodate respectively the Philadelphia Eagles who lost a Super Bowl and the Pittsburgh Steelers who won a Super Bowl.

This won't be the first joint video address: The late Gov. Robert P. Casey gave one in Fall 1987 to unveil a proposal to overhaul local taxes. He was recuperating from heart surgery.

Meanwhile, the Senate has adjusted its session days to reflect the decision by Senate Appropriations Committee Majority Chairman Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, to delay the budget hearings, Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland, said in a recent memo.

As a result, the Senate is now scheduled to be in session Feb. 22, 23 and 24, dates that in previous years were devoted to budget hearings.

John Guyer, the Senate appropriations committee executive director, said he hopes to release a revised budget hearing schedule in the next week or so.

But the House is sticking to its original plans.

"We plan to stick with the weeks of Feb. 16, 22 and March 1," said Neal Lesher, spokesman for House Appropriations Committee Majority Chairman Stan Saylor, R-York.