All Eyes On The House

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Senate approved a budget which cut spending roughly $400 million below Gov. Ed Rendell's requested amount.

Rendell had originally requested $28.3 billion which was 4.2% over the current budgeted amount for the current fiscal year ($27.2 billion). The budget that the Senate passed totaled $27.9 billion and 2.8% higher than last year's.

Republicans recognized that slowdown in the economy may provide less tax receipts than expected. In order to avoid further decrease the surplus, Senate Republicans chopped $400 million from the Governor's request. $118 million of those cuts came in reductions to Gov. Rendell's increased request for education funding.

A statement by Senate Appropriations Chairman Gib Armstrong reflected the compromise involved:

"It is a budget that cuts back from what Governor Rendell proposed in February, because revenues will fall several hundred million dollars short of his prediction.

It is a budget that does not reflect anyone’s full set of priorities, whether those would be for program expansions, spending cuts, or tax reductions.

Most states confront budget woes more serious than ours. But we also know from experience that Pennsylvania’s recovery from economic troubles tends to be slower. Given that track record, we cannot responsibly build this budget on wishful thinking and hope for a robust economic rebound and a revenue miracle next year.

So this is not a year where we can afford to satisfy spending requests, make commitments to new programs and expensive program expansions, or rely on gimmicks to push tough decisions into next year. This budget may not be politically pretty or popular with groups who seek more from state government. But it moves the process forward, an important consideration as the deadline approaches, and it does so in a way meant to prevent a budget crisis next year."

As we discussed before, the House bill is larger than the Governor's requested amount which translates into an even larger difference between the House and the Senate. House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans had been hoping to reach a deal with the Senate and Governor to make sure the budget was implemented before the deadline.

Some Republicans, like Rep. Garth Everett, believe the Senate plan provides a baseline to work from. However, Everett has been critical of Evan's delay in bringing the bill to the House floor and even threatened to introduce a discharge resolution. In a statement last week, Everett said:

"This is another example of their create-a-crisis style of budgeting, which is done so they can rush a poorly-crafted spending plan through the Legislature in an effort to gain leverage for their own policy agenda."