State Treasurer Joe Torsella Monday defended his recent decisions to discontinue loaning funds from Treasury’s short-term investment pool and not authorizing the ability of the Commonwealth to seek outside borrowing without a balanced budget based on his interpretation of prudent lending standards and precedent in making similar types of financial maneuvers.

The Pennsylvania Senate reconvened Monday for the first time since July and their top order of business was a review of the budget-balancing plan the House passed last week.

As Pennsylvania’s budget-related impasse drags on and the state legislative chambers volley budget-balancing plans between each other, Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday announced the state will be delaying some payments to insurers and for pension obligations in order to keep the state’s budget balanced in the absence of additional revenue for the General Fund.

House Republicans on Wednesday passed what they entitled “The Putting People First Budget,” a budget-balancing plan that provides $2.3 billion in funding to close the $2.2 billion accumulated budget deficit facing the Commonwealth in FY 2017-2018, by a vote of 103 to 91. 

Things didn’t quite go as expected Tuesday for the House Republican Caucus who, as late as Monday afternoon, was eyeing a vote on some version of a plan to balance the state budget by transferring special fund money into the General Fund as an attempt to close the state’s $2.2 billion deficit.

By Tuesday afternoon, the House adjourned without taking up the plan and legislative leaders met with the House Taxpayer Caucus—the main proponents of the special funds plan— and some Southeastern lawmakers to try to rework their strategy in order to gain enough votes to get some budget-balancing plan to the Senate by week’s end.