Gov. Tom Wolf joined Pittsburgh leaders Thursday at an event to promote fiscal improvements the state has seen during his tenure.

Wolf joined Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald at the Energy Innovation Center in the Hill District — a site that Fitzgerald hailed as a “tremendous research and development place for our universities, for our workforce in energy in the future.”

Now nearing the end of his final term, Wolf declared that the fiscal situation has undergone a major transformation since he took office in 2015.

Gov. Tom Wolf is in Pittsburgh today to discuss Pennsylvania’s fiscal strength. pic.twitter.com/abQDg6cNTE

— Julia Felton (@JuliaFelton16) January 20, 2022

“When I became governor, Pennsylvania was on really shaky financial grounds,” Wolf said. “Like many other governors, I inherited a budget deficit.”

The Rainy Day Fund had about $200,000 and the state was contending with a structural budget deficit of between $2 billion and $3 billion, Wolf said.

Citing his previous role running his family’s business, Wolf said he wanted to “balance the books” in Harrisburg. “Over the past seven years, we’ve actually done that in Pennsylvania. We’ve done that through some sound fiscal management.”

The governor acknowledged that a strong national economy since he took office has bolstered Pennsylvania’s fiscal recovery.

The commonwealth’s revenues are running about $1.5 billion ahead of estimates, and there’s a surplus of between $5 and $6 billion, Wolf said. The Rainy Day Fund has grown to $2.8 billion.

Wolf is poised to become the first governor since Gov. Dick Thornburgh in the 1980s to leave a budget surplus for his successor.

“By consensus, I think, the budget coming up this year is in the best shape it’s been in a long time,” said G. Terry Madonna, senior fellow in residence for political affairs at Millersville University. “Everything I’ve read about the budget this year indicates we’re sitting on a nice surplus.”

Madonna said the upcoming budget seems to disperse funds to key programs throughout the commonwealth.

“We’ve gotten to this point because there are federal programs that have buoyed it up,” Madonna said of the extra cash in the coffers. He credited federal programs for allowing the state to make better investments and avoid drastic tax hikes.

“We’ve done this by making smart investments,” Wolf said, touting a 28% increase in investments in education during his time in office, as well as investments in economic development projects and efforts to cut down on violence.

Though Wolf and other local leaders highlighted the positives, Madonna said there are still areas of economic concern that the governor should attempt to resolve. People left the workforce in droves in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, and even the most essential fields are still struggling to find proper staffing, he said.

“There are huge parts of the economy that are suffering from the situation that we now face,” Madonna said. “Virtually every industry is suffering from a worker shortage.”

In addition, while Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populous state, its rate of population growth lags behind other parts of the nation, leading to another loss of a U.S. House seat and Electoral College vote following the most recent census.

Yet the fiscal improvements in Pennsylvania are visible in Allegheny County, Fitzgerald said. For the first time in about 60 years, the county’s population is growing, something Fitzgerald credited to investments that have made the area an affordable place to live with job offerings and good quality of life.

That desire to move into the county has translated to an increase in home values, with average home values jumping from about $130,000 in 2014 to about $250,000 today.

Owning a home in Allegheny County “pretty much doubled your net worth, your assets, just by paying your mortgage, because of the growth that’s happening here in this region,” Fitzgerald said.

The county has also seen an increase in the average income, which is above the national average, he said. Even in the midst of the pandemic, Fitzgerald said, the county’s economy didn’t take as hard of a hit as many others in the country.

Gainey specifically highlighted Wolf’s efforts to “make grants available so that we can reduce violence in our community,” something particularly important in the wake of a deadly shooting outside of Oliver Citywide Academy in the city’s Marshall-Shadeland neighborhood Wednesday.

He thanked Wolf for “the investments he has made throughout our region.”

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