Unfinished budget means holiday work
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – As tourists wandered through the Capitol, state lawmakers saw their work week stretch into the July Fourth holiday weekend as budget negotiations between their leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell continued Saturday. It was the second day of a new fiscal year without a spending plan – the third straight year that the Democratic governor and Republican-controlled Legislature have not completed a budget on time.
Republican and Democratic legislative leaders said they were still struggling to develop a final spending plan acceptable to the governor. Lawmakers are also privately discussing a plan to raise their salaries by about 20 percent.
Negotiations are going “very slowly,” said Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow, D-Lackawanna. “Probably rising like mercury.”
The sides are within $50 million of an agreement on a roughly $24 billion budget, but bridging the difference may prove to be the toughest part of negotiations, Mellow said.
Much of the divide involves spending on lawmakers’ pet projects. Rendell’s staff insists that not enough revenue will come in this fiscal year to accommodate that spending.
Rendell’s spending proposal calls for no tax or fee increases, but lawmakers have been wrangling over how much of a larger-than-expected surplus to use to restore the governor’s proposed Medicaid cuts.
The cuts include higher co-pays and limits on hospitalizations and prescriptions, as well as reduced reimbursements to providers such as hospitals, nursing homes, and drug companies.
“There’s still a debate about what way to manage and what cuts are necessary as far as controlling the medical assistance costs,” said House Majority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson.
House Minority Whip Mike Veon, D-Beaver, said lawmakers were discussing restoring between roughly $125 million and $200 million in Medicaid spending.
“There is a consensus that we should lift the cap on prescriptions and remove the proposed cap on the hospitals,” Veon said.
If a budget isn’t passed within the next week, Rendell administration officials have said they would furlough more than 50,000 state workers, leaving them without pay or benefits.
More than 20,000 essential workers, such as state nurses, police, welfare workers and payment clerks, would remain on the job, while about 2,000 senior political appointees in the administration would work unpaid.
In the meantime, tours of the Capitol went on throughout the day.