Pennsylvania’s legislators and Gov. Tom Wolf have had a difficult time coming up with an on-time state budget during the previous three years, so with the budget deadline just nine days away, the question is: Will this year’s cat-and-mouse game be any different?

My prediction is: Yes.

You see, this is an election year. Wolf, all 203 state representatives and 25 of the 50 state senators are up for re-election this year, so none of them will want to be involved in a protracted battle in Harrisburg.

First of all, it reminds voters of the gridlock of the last three state budgets, and, secondly, it will take precious time away from being on the campaign trail in a year when the midterm elections take on special significance because of a presumed re-energized electorate.

To show how serious this is, Sen. Scott Wagner, the Republican gubernatorial nominee who is facing off against Wolf in the Nov. 6 general election, resigned from the Senate a few weeks ago to focus all of his energies on unseating the incumbent Democrat.

For his part, Wolf was critical of Wagner’s move. Wolf said that after missing key votes and giving up his seat about a month before the budget deadline ``proves that he is the very worst of Harrisburg.”

A virtual political novice when he announced he was running for governor in early 2013, Wolf underwent a reality check during his first year in office. He introduced a budget about a month after he was inaugurated that called for increases in the broad-based sales and income taxes as a way to fix Pennsylvania’s ailing education and pension systems.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly showed Wolf who was in charge by not only announcing that his proposals were dead in the water, but they fought him tooth-to-nail before agreeing to a nine-month late 2015-16 budget.

A year later in his next budget address in February 2016, he called out legislators who were unwilling to play ball and told them basically that if they did not have the best interests of the citizens of Pennsylvania at heart that they needed to find another line of work. That didn’t work either, and we had another late budget.

Last year, a somewhat chastened Wolf used a different strategy that backed off calls for increases in the broad-based taxes. This time we had an on-time spending plan, but the revenue part of the budget wasn’t approved until nearly four months later and relied on a major expansion of gambling and borrowing $1.5 billion to make the numbers come together.

There are a couple of positives which are likely to make an on-time budget more realistic this time around, aside from the points I mentioned earlier. Revenues, which had woefully missed their targets because of pie-in-the-sky estimates, are looking much better for the fiscal year that will end on June 30.

And let’s not forget the ace in the hole: The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling which will allow states to make their own decisions about sports betting. Pennsylvania is counting on this to help make its 2018-19 numbers work, and many of the casinos in the state are preparing to start offering this expanded form of gambling as soon as they get the official go-ahead.

Legislators have been hard at work since early June. Republicans have cleared some important sticking points between them and Wolf. Wolf had proposed that municipalities pay $25-a-person for state police coverage in those municipalities without their own police forces.

Republicans, many of whom represent rural districts where state police coverage is prevalent because municipalities do not have the money to establish and maintain their own forces, opposed the plan last year and held fast again this year, so that idea has been shot down. Wolf was counting on this line item to contribute $63 million on the revenue side.

For the fourth year, Republicans have torpedoed the Wolf proposal for a Marcellus Shale tax increase. Pennsylvania is one of the few states without a tax on oil and gas extractions, although it does impose some lesser fees on drillers.

In his budget address, Wolf asked legislators to come together on the budget proposal the way they have on such major issues as the opioid crisis for the benefit of our residents. Reading the tea leaves in Harrisburg is always frustrating, but this budget season, it appears as if legislators are on course to have an on-time plan ready for the governor.

This state budget is by no means a perfect document, not even close, but, given the polarization between a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled legislature, it is about as good as we are going to get under the circumstances.

By BRUCE FRASSINELLI | tneditor@tnonline.com