(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Gov. Tom Wolf’s eighth and final budget address sounded upbeat tones of money surpluses and past accomplishments, but local lawmakers heard discordant messages.

Wolf’s nearly half-hour long speech included calls for an increase in the state’s minimum wage, investments in education and infrastructure, payment of debts and cooperation in state government.

He noted the state’s budget surplus and a $2.8 billion rainy day fund amounting to the state’s highest ever.

“Really, the bottom line is the reason there is a surplus is because we fought for it,” state Rep. Jeff Wheeland, R-Loyalsock Township, said. “He didn’t talk about increasing the rainy day fund. As sure as the sun is going to come up, there will be a recession, and we have to prepare for that. Shame on us if we won’t continue to increase the rainy day fund.”

Wolf noted that the progress made in paying down the debt on state pensions, but Wheeland said much more needs to be done.

“Without getting our house in order, if affects bond rates,” he said.

Wheeland referred to Wolf’s push for a hike in the minimum wage for workers as a “talking point.”

“He’s a little late to the party,” he said. “Everyone seems to be making at least $12 by now. In Lycoming County, it doesn’t hold water.”

Wolf noted in his speech that Pennsylvania has not hiked its hourly minimum wage of $7.25 in 13 years, while surrounding states have gone ahead and raised starting wages for workers.

Wheeland said he liked the idea of Wolf calling for no tax increases and a decrease in the state’s corporate net income tax rate.

“This governor has no qualms about spending massive amounts of taxpayer dollars because he won’t be in office when the bills come due,” said state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock Township. “We must make reasonable investments in our state, which includes protecting our residents from massive tax hikes that will be necessary to fill a multi-billion-dollar budget gap in the coming years.”

Yaw noted the spending includes $2 billion in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.

“I think the first thing we need to do is be realistic,” Yaw said. “It unduly increases expectations, and I think we need to be more honest about what the real result of this proposal is — a $13 billion budget deficit in just four years.”

Yaw acknowledged that the governor has claimed to propose no new tax increases.

However, he noted Wolf’s plan raises the projected revenue from the Regional Greenhouse Gas

Initiative from $300 million to $410 million.

He said that would amount to a roughly 36% increase from original income projections that will be passed on to residents through increased electricity rates.

Yaw also noted the governor’s proposal of $450 million in additional funding for the Growing Greener Conservation and Recreation Program, as well as for agriculture conservation programs.

“These programs are critical to preserving Pennsylvania’s agricultural vitality and I share the governor’s goal of better supporting this community,” Yaw said. “But this spending must not come at an expense that is too high to bear for millions of residents still struggling under the weight of the administration’s other questionable policy decisions.”

State Rep. Joe Hamm called Wolf’s budget proposal “irresponsible.”

“Last year, Gov. Wolf increased his budget by $3 billion, which was rejected by the House and Senate,” he said. “This year, he doubled down, and not only doubled down, but he doubled asked for $6.2 billion more, which is a 16.7% increase in spending.”

Hamm said he has advocated for the Taxpayer Protection Act, which would limit the budget to no more than a 3.5% increase.

State Rep. Clint Owlett, R-Welllsboro, also had less than praise for Wolf’s spending plan.

“After years of work by House Republicans to get the state on firmer financial footing, the governor is seeking to squander it all in a single year,” he said. “I can’t think of a more irresponsible way to ‘budget’ the taxpayers’ money. And I can’t think of a more selfish way for a man who is looking at his last year in office to try to erase his legacy of shutting down our schools, our employers and our Commonwealth.

“The governor’s proposal is nothing more than a fiscal fantasy. Rather than rely on the experts — the nonpartisan Independent Fiscal Office — to crunch the numbers, he has chosen his own numbers of unknown origin to sugar-coat reality. We are facing the highest rate of inflation in decades, and that will undoubtedly be followed by a period of recession.

“We will not be equipped to weather that recession if we buy into the governor’s voodoo math,” he said.

Owlett said despite Wolf’s comments to the contrary, the state’s finances are not “all rainbows and skittles.”

The lawmaker called for a building a solid future and sparing upcoming generations the burden of higher taxes.