HARRISBURG, PA — Gov. Tom Wolf let the $31.5 billion budget adopted by the House and Senate become law without his signature. Lawmakers have still not worked out the details about how they will fill the $1.3 billion budget gap in the plan, but it appears that part of the gap will be filled by an increase in the amount of taxes paid on a pack of cigarettes.

The current tax on a pack is $1.60, while many anti-smoking advocates are urging that it be increased to $2.60, and to tax other tobacco products, such as cigars and chewing tobacco, which are currently not taxed. The details remained to be worked out at press time.

Wolf accepted the spending plan without having the revenue portion completely in place because he was in favor of the $200 million increase in basic education spending included in the plan and $20 million to address the heroin and opioid addiction epidemic.

Still, ratings companies are not happy that the books don’t balance, and S&P Global Ratings put the state on a credit watch. “The CreditWatch action reflects recent developments that indicate that Pennsylvania will likely proceed into fiscal 2017 with a spending plan that is not supported by a revenue package or offsetting spending cuts to bring the budget into alignment,” wrote Carol Spain, a credit analyst, adding, “But if lawmakers continue to negotiate and reach a balanced budget within a 90 day timeframe, we could remove the ratings from CreditWatch.”