Four months ago when Gov. Tom Wolf proposed a comprehensive state budget, he said it would fulfill his campaign pledge for a fresh start toward a different kind of Pennsylvania — a state that features jobs that pay, schools that teach and government that works.

But with the midnight deadline for a budget now behind us, the government Wolf envisioned has all the feel and maturity of a “double-dog dare.”

The Republican-dominated House has sent Wolf a budget, but not the $33.6 billion one he proposed on March 3. The GOP version leaves out the 5 percent severance tax on Marcellus gas wells and the sales tax increase Wolf proposed to help finance his hefty increase in schools spending. But the Republicans’ $30.2 billion plan does not include a tax increase.

Wolf vetod the GOP budget Tuesday night.

Here’s where the double-dog dares come into play: The Republicans are rapidly pushing other measures including a property tax reform, public pension reform and liquor privatization. The Legislature on Tuesday passed a liquor privatization bill for the first time, and Wolf may veto that.

This method of legislating is laden with problems, not least of which is the acceleration of the process. Legislators are pumping bills through the system without reading them, let alone giving them ample debate time.

The chronology isn’t accidental: this is a game of chicken, an exercise in who blinks first — a classic double-dog dare. Each side is waiting for the other to give in, and neither governor nor GOP legislators intend to consider any sort of compromise.

The Republicans steadfastly maintain that pension reform should preclude any increase in school spending, and that any severance tax might prove counterproductive, and that the state should get out of the liquor trade.

In response, Wolf policy chief John Hanger says the Republicans “stand by drillers against the children of Pennsylvania” and House Democrat Frank Dermody accuses them of “holding the kids hostage for liquor.” These are not words uttered in the spirit of compromise.

The midnight June 31 deadline has been more or less disregarded for several years, but even so, there’s no sense of urgency in it. And the governor and Legislature have had four months to negotiate a deal.

Only now, with the threat of a partial government shutdown and some vendors not getting paid on time, will the budget negotiations take on an added air of earnest. That’s unfortunate, particularly with the distraction of side-issues embraced by both sides.

Through it all, the components of a grand deal still exist. The governor still can get the tax increases he wants — some of them, anyway — if he’s willing to give in on liquor privatization and/or pension reform.

As Wolf said on March 3: “If you don’t agree with my ideas, here is my request: please come with your own ideas. It’s not good enough to just say no and continue with the same old same old. That’s our responsibility to the people of Pennsylvania. They may have voted for divided government, but they did not vote for gridlock. We have to find ways to deliver the solutions that we promised.”

Amen, governor. Let’s see those solutions