Governor unveils $23.8 billion budget
HARRISBURG – When newly minted Beaver County lawmaker Sean Ramalay was asked what, if anything, he liked about Gov. Ed Rendell’s new proposed budget that was introduced Wednesday, he said he’s happy that there are no tax increases. While it would be a stretch to say that the proposed state budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year has something for everyone, Democrats and Republicans, western Pennsylvanians and southeastern Pennsylvanians all found something to love and hate about Rendell’s $23.8 billion blueprint for the coming year.
“Overall, I was encouraged,” Ramalay said about the proposed budget. “He has managed to present a balanced budget, despite that there is less money coming in from the federal government.”
Ramalay said he was particularly pleased with Rendell’s plan to give the state’s community colleges their largest budget increase in 15 years. The $21 million that’s to be used for job-related courses at the schools will go a long way toward helping Beaver County adults who need employment retraining, he said.
“This will make us more marketable,” he said.
Jeff Foreman, chief of staff for state Rep. Mike Veon (D-Beaver), also pointed to the extra money for community colleges as the “big winner” for counties like Beaver.
Veon was singled out by the governor, who said he would take the lawmaker’s suggestion to offer “intensive technical support” for the Industrial Resource Centers. Rendell said this would help retool plants and “rebut unfair trade practices.”
Veon also is getting his wish with the governor’s announcement that he wanted to reopen the state’s five-year-old settlement with tobacco companies to pay for more health insurance coverage for workers.
“Just having it reopened is really big,” Foreman said.
While Democrats were relentlessly positive about Rendell’s budget priorities, there was grumbling among Republicans. State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson (R-Bucks), for one, joined other GOP lawmakers in criticizing the governor for not taking more of a leadership role on the mass transit crises.
Despite saying finding money for systems like Pittsburgh’s Port Authority and the Philadelphia area’s SEPTA, the governor uttered only five sentences about mass transit, most of those vague exhortations for the Legislature to work together. State Rep. Kate Harper (R-Montgomery) said the governor needs to do better if the transit agencies are to avoid impending layoffs, fare increases and service reductions.
“The governor should have provided leadership and given details for a mass transit fix,” she said. “Two percent is not enough to fix what Bucks and Montgomery counties desperately need.”
Harper said she was pleased to hear the governor’s kind words for her proposed Green PA program, which is in legislative competition with Rendell’s Growing Greener II.
Rendell said he wants to work with the Legislature to come to a consensus on environmental spending. That led Harper to quip that Mother Nature received a “shot in the arm” with the budget address.
While state Rep. Scott Petri (R-Bucks) said he admires the governor’s attempts to cut the size and cost of state government, he criticized an 8 percent reduction in the budget of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. That reduction, he said, could result in the closing of four state parks.
Even more disturbing to the lawmaker is that the “shoestring budget” the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission operates with will be made even more threadbare in the coming year. And that does not bode well for Washington Crossing State Historic Park, he said.
“When you want to look at something locally you can’t find anything more important than that park,” Petri said.
Rick Martinez can be reached at 717-705-6330 or rmartinez@calkins-media.com.