A 173 package update came down the pipe a few minutes ago and after I rebooted the first thing that caught my eye was the blue HP printer icon setting in the system tray. I popped open the service menu and was informed that I would have to reset the "que", which I assume is the printer que to the printer icon, also a fresh arrival in the system tray. Going through the requested procedure by merely pressing a series of continue buttons my printer status changed to "Active" and all the status reports worked properly, as did a test printout. 
EDIT: I am running Neon (on top of Kubuntu 16.04) but except for the Kgpg and Kmail panel icons my Neon looks exactly like my 14.04 install.
EDIT: I am running Neon (on top of Kubuntu 16.04) but except for the Kgpg and Kmail panel icons my Neon looks exactly like my 14.04 install.