What if, in the weeks leading up to April 15, Pennsylvania taxpayers adopted the attitude that they would settle their state tax obligation whenever they got around to it, whether that was before, on or after the tax-filing deadline?

On or before, no problem. However, what if the bulk of taxpayers decided that the deadline wasn’t really important — that it was just a date — and that they would complete their tax filing — whenever?

Again, no problem. There wouldn’t be any financial penalty for missing the deadline, including no interest penalty for any money owed. The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue would be understanding, no matter how much the money outstanding prevented the commonwealth from paying its bills.

But wait, in reality, the state Revenue Department wouldn’t be at all understanding regarding failure to pay on time without any good excuse for not having filed and not having paid all money owed by the filing deadline.

But “shift gears” to the Pennsylvania General Assembly and its June 30 deadline for adoption of a new state budget this year for the 2026-27 fiscal year.

This June 30, for the fifth straight year, that date on the calendar came and went without lawmakers having finished their budget work, thus not having sent a completed budget to the Governor’s Office for the state chief executive’s signature.

And, for the fifth straight year, lawmakers will collect their paychecks as usual despite not having completed their budget work — and without any other penalties to fear.

It’s perplexing that lawmakers can’t even finish budget work in a year when the seats of most members of the General Assembly will be up for re-election in November. That’s because Pennsylvania’s lawmakers harbor the arrogant attitude that the state’s voters have short memories and won’t punish them for what they fail to do.

Perhaps that needs to change.

An article in the Mirror’s July 1 edition, “Deadline for state budget missed,” said this year’s missed deadline is “a situation that will have little practical effect in the short term but raises the ugly specter of last year’s 135-day impasse.”

“In 2025,” that article went on to say, “even though political leaders spoke in late June and early July of being ‘close’ to a deal, none was reached until November. Billions of dollars in state payments were withheld, counties lost millions of dollars, programs were cut and employees were furloughed.”

But 2025 wasn’t a legislative election year like this one, and many state government observers assumed that, with that pitiful history behind them, lawmakers wouldn’t risk making the same mistake two years in a row.

However, more than a week into the new fiscal year and no new budget to be found, observers were facing the reality of uncertainty over how the 2026-27 budget-preparation exercise would end up playing out.

Regardless, the General Assembly was approaching two weeks into the new fiscal year and looking increasingly inept — but voters won’t hear any acknowledgment of that kind on the campaign trail this fall.

In its May 26 edition, the Mirror published a CapitolWire article “Consumer sticker shock lifts state tax collections” that said items that have become more expensive have been a bonus for the state budget as sales tax revenue has exceeded projections. The article added that better-than-expected corporate profits and stock performance also are providing a boost.

Nevertheless, the June 30 budget-adoption deadline was ignored.

Is there something very troubling that state taxpayers are not being told about the true fiscal condition of this commonwealth?