Yesterday before a joint session of the Pennsylvania State Legislature, Governor Ed Rendell handed house and senate members his $21 billion budget blueprint plan. In this year’s budget, Rendell has proposed most state programs will be sustained for another year and is still working on his “Plan for a New Pennsylvania”.
“I hate this budget. I hate it with every fiber of my body,” said the governor. “These painful cuts will do nothing but balance the budget. But this budget does nothing to change our future, nothing to change the conditions we find ourselves in at the present, and it will doom us to repeat the past.”
After criticizing former Governor Mark Schweiker, Rendell is following some the same path he used to balance the budget for this fiscal year.
Rendell wants to withdraw $330 million from the state’s tobacco settlement fund, drain the $250 million left in the state’s “rainy day” contingency fund and draw another $250 million from the Department of Public Welfare’s intergovernmental-transfers fund.
State Senate Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer says it is impossible to draw conclusions from a budget proposal with so many question marks attached to it.
“What Governor Rendell presented today is maybe 95 percent of the state budget, but the most consequential and controversial elements of his plans have yet to be detailed,” said Jubelirer. “In difficult financial times, the most important thing is to avoid a budget standoff and crisis situation. This initial proposal may provide legislators to meet that goal. The hard lessons from the 1991 budget crisis and its aftermath have not been lost on us.”
In the budget submitted yesterday, the largest spending increases include $320 million for increased debt payments, $420 million increase in payments for medical care for the poor and a $123 million increase for the Pennsylvania School Employees’ Retirement Fund. He also added $42 million to various economic development programs and $32 million for the Corrections Department budget.
Rendell proposed cuts to three education programs that the previous Republican governors promoted — performance incentive grants, school improvement grants and education-support services — to save $77 million. There is also a proposed $52 million cut from the elimination of grants for sewage-treatment operations and tens of millions of cutbacks in the Department of Public Welfare, which includes cuts in drug and alcohol treatment services and patient services provided under the medical assistance program.
“The most negative aspect of today’s presentation is the array of education, economic development and health care funding that has been cut or eliminated,” said Jubelirer. “These items are important to kids, workers and communities. In the months ahead, we will have to find a way to put some essential pieces back in, without giving into a level of spending that is unaffordable for taxpayers or unwise for our hopes of economic recovery.”
During the campaign for the chief executive’s office, Rendell campaigned on a platform that he would reduce local property taxes by 30 percent and increase the state’s share of public education costs to 50 percent.
Republican leaders have stated that they hope to pass the first part of the budget promptly.
“The governor presented a bare bones budget to the general assembly yesterday,” said Rep. Larry Sather. “There are cuts throughout most departments of state governments. Basic education funding is level. The Republican caucus has pledged to the governor and the world that there will be no gridlock. We are not going to let government come to a screeching halt to do budget disagreement. This commonwealth and the tax payers of this commonwealth don’t need that exercise played out.
“Tomorrow, it is the intention right now, and it could change, it is the intent of the republican caucus to vote this budget as presented by the governor on the floor of the house. If we’re successful, we will send it to the senate and they will take it up next week. It is a difficult budget time. Families have to take actions when their source of revenue doesn’t meet expenditures and we have to do that at the state government. In fact we probably should have been doing more of it all along. What we don’t fully understand is that the governor is going to return to us on March 25 to present to us another phase. This is something I have never seen in my years as county commissioner and 11 years in Harrisburg.
“The governor has taken substantial dollars out of the state bureaucracy, and he has picked up a number of our suggestions for economy measures, so there are some positives to this proposal,” said Jubelirer. “I was pleased that he acknowledged the responsible budgeting practices of recent years and steps we have taken to ensure that Pennsylvania does not face the huge financial problems confronting many other states,” Jubelirer noted.
Rendell will return with another package on March 25 which will call for nearly $2 billion in state borrowing to leverage more than $5 billion for economic development throughout the state.
The governor also mentioned for the first time that he anticipates proposing a tax increase to help finance the initiatives he will unveil later this month. He also reiterated his support for legalizing slot machines at race tracks to generate revenue. He said the impact of those proposals on revitalizing the state’s economy, public schools and tax system outweigh the political fallout.
Senator Jubelirer has been a consistent opponent of gambling expansion and said his position has not changed.
Editor’s Note: The Associated Press contributed to this story.
