Since June 30, the Sun-Gazette has featured at least 40 articles about businesses in our local communities.

From mixed martial arts studios to furniture production, from convenience stores to photography studios, from bakeries to fishing-lure craftsmanship, from car dealerships to coffee stands, the Sun-Gazette is honored, as part of its commitment to comprehensive reporting on our region, to share the stories of entrepreneurs and their hard work. We note our reporting, in part, because we hope these men and women are successful in creating jobs and realizing their dreams and aspirations in Lycoming County and surrounding communities.

Readers may wonder, however, why we’ve singled out the weeks since June 30.

June 30 was the now-long-missed deadline for our state’s budget.

We continue to believe that businesses and employers have greater opportunities to contribute to our economy with stability and certainty — and every day without a budget our state’s business climate is a little less stable and a little more uncertain.

We also continue to believe that the burden of increased state spending will be an economic drag on the fortunes of our businesses and employers — and on the workers they employ and pay and on the consumers upon whose spending dollars they depend.

We appreciate that our region’s lawmakers, as the stalemate continues, are consistent in their skepticism about increased spending. We hope Gov. Josh Shapiro and other leaders in the negotiations can come to appreciate their wisdom.