Governor-elect Tom Wolf hasn’t yet taken office and he’s already facing a looming, multi-billion dollar budget deficit for fiscal year 2016, which starts in July of next year. In fact, the state is expected to start spending more than it’s taking in starting in January. Wolf said that’s because Governor Tom Corbett managed to balance the budget for 2015, but only by supplementing $2 billion, or 7 percent, of revenue with one-time solutions.

On top of all that, contracts for state workers must be renegotiated as they end next year, likely increasing labor costs since pay raises were slashed from 10 to 4 percent during the recession.

Wolf announced that he and his Budget Deficit and Fiscal Stabilization Task Force were working on understanding the scope of the problem before presenting any solutions.

“I want to know what the magnitude of the problem is,” Wolf said in a meeting with press on Dec. 17. “I’ll get to solutions when I get to my budget program and I’ll be working with the legislature to come up with those solutions.”

The governor-to-be has mentioned some priorities, including prioritizing education funding and taxing natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale. Those efforts would have to make it through the Republican-controlled legislature, even if the budget team comes up with a way to solve what could be a more than $2 billion deficit and increase spending on education.

“We’re going to have to look at the expenditures we have right now and we’re going to have to make some tough decisions,” Wolf said. “I’m not going to make those decisions now.”