As we noted in Sunday’s editorial — and a year ago and before — the state and its budget have to contend with court rulings that funding public schools by district has led to unconstitutional imbalances.

For decades, the primary source of funding for public schools in Pennsylvania has been property taxes, assessed by local school districts.

One affect of this has been that schools in communities with higher property values are able to provide greater resources to their students.

Another aspect is that officials would be in better fiscal positions to address property taxes — and the lack of property tax relief — if the new system to emerge shifts the funding to state government — which levies sales taxes, income taxes, corporate taxes and fees instead of property taxes.

We fear, as we believe we shared in Sunday’s editorial, that new obligations for those sales-tax dollars, those dollars from corporate taxes and permit fees and elsewhere, will leave the state ill-prepared to address education funding and property tax relief — both important goals and one mandated by the judicial system.

If Pennsylvania wants to attract working families, it needs to better balance providing a high quality of education to their children with a tax burden on their families and their businesses — particularly the burden on their homes and, as we’ve said before, the value of their hard work — is never at risk of being excessive.

Budget proposals that overspend without regard to the realities of the state’s obligations in the coming years fail to strike that balance.