Get it done.

We can think of no more direct a way to remind the Legislature's Republican majority and Gov. Tom Wolf of their fundamental responsibilities as Pennsylvania heads into another week without an approved state budget.They have no more basic a duty, no simpler a task.That it has taken so long, seemingly with so little engagement until recently, boggles the imagination. In some states, with smaller and part-time General Assemblies - the only job confronting the legislative bodies and the executive is to approve a spending plan for the new fiscal year.Pennsylvania, as we are constantly reminded, has one of the largest and best-paid full-time Legislatures in the country. The fact that it cannot accomplish so simple a task is an embarrassment.Yes, Wolf, a freshman Democrat, presented lawmakers with a massive and ambitious spending plan during his first budget address in March. Its web of tax and spending increases was guaranteed to hit resistance in the Republican-controlled House and Senate.The York Democrat certainly exacerbated tensions with his decision to veto the whole of the $30.2 billion spending plan that Republicans sent him on June 30. The GOP is correct in pointing out that it included items upon which both sides agreed.But Republicans sent Wolf a budget, which did not include any of the governor's spending priorities, knowing full well that a long-promised veto would follow. The same held true for the pension reform and liquor privatization bills that Wolf also ran his veto pen across.A costly - both in terms of dollars and political goodwill - war of words that ensued, fought by the Legislature, the administration and its surrogates, merely wasted everyone's time and energy. It stood in the way of getting a budget done.Weeks were wasted as the two sides each accused the other of failing to compromise. Markedly missing in that back-and-forth was any genuine attempt at compromise.Encouragingly, the two sides have begun meeting with regularity as the summer winds down and the start of a new school year - one without an approved funding package - begins in some parts of Pennsylvania.On Wednesday, Republicans presented Wolf what amounted to a last, best proposal - as they offered to trade a "modified" version of pension reform for the full $400 million increase to the state's basic education subsidy sought by Wolf.At this writing, the administration says it's waiting for an analysis of the Senate's pension proposal, which Republicans say would save the state $12 billion. The GOP says it can also fund Wolf's education increase without any broad-based tax increases.It's a tempting offer - and one that we hope Wolf considers seriously as the real pin of the impasse becomes clear.A debate over how to pay for schools, whether through liquor privatization or by some other means, still beckons. The same is true for the unsettled question of property tax relief for homeowners and a severance tax for natural gas drillers.As Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, noted, "it's long past time to get this done."So get it done.- PennLive.com