Budget woes
Time for legislature to get serious We are less than two months away from the state’s budget deadline of June 30 and what do we have? Not much.
Gov. Ed Rendell’s budget proposal is way out of whack. Since he announced it in February, the financial landscape has once again shifted for the worst.
Revenues aren’t coming in as strongly as had been hoped – it turns out we’re down $1.1 billion.
The federal tolling of Interstate 80 is no more – so the state can say goodbye to $470 million in hoped-for revenue. Even one of the one-time “patch fund” moves – raiding money from the state’s MCARE fund used for doctors’ malpractice liabilities – has been judged unlawful by a court. The Rendell administration is appealing that ruling, but at the moment that’s potentially another $600 million blow.
Put that all together, and the deficit for next year could be at least $2 billion before we even talk about increased spending.
The Senate Republicans are right to ask Rendell for a revised budget proposal given all that has changed. But those same Republicans shouldn’t simply sit back and wait and point fingers. This time last year, Senate Republicans under the leadership of Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre, were hard at work on their own budget proposal – SB 850 – which was a bare-bones budget that cut spending aggressively. Much of that bill was ultimately adopted.
If Republicans truly want to avoid tax increases – including the obvious proposals of taxing Marcellus Shale billion-dollar gas drilling companies and big tobacco firms that sell smokeless tobacco products in this state – then they need to come to the plate again with a counterproposal.
We have less than two months before the deadline.
Already we hear rumors from legislative offices of bets being placed that the budget won’t be done until at least mid-July.
Enough is enough. The public – who will go to the polls this fall for the general election – expect a budget on time this year. Even more than that, Pennsylvanians want to see the real issues vetted in public committee hearings just as they are supposed to be.
It’s clear that the budget is at least $1 billion out of whack. It’s deja vu with the governor proposing a $29 billion budget with certain “revenue enhancements” and the Republicans saying the state can’t afford anything above $27.5 billion.
When are we going to have the hearings we ought to be having?
The ones where the public gets to hear testimony on whether a smokeless tobacco tax, as every other state in the country has, and a Marcellus Shale severance tax, like the one enacted by every other large natural gas-producing state, are the right way to go for this budget proposal.
Or whether closing the so-called “Delaware Loophole,” as several neighboring states have done, would make sense for Pennsylvania.
When are we going to have the hearings on further cuts? If the Republicans want a leaner budget, what would they cut and when will the public hear those options and get to weigh in?
At the moment, Pennsylvania doesn’t have anything resembling a balanced budget. Rendell and the leadership of all four legislative caucuses claim they want a budget on time. Now’s the time to prove it.
The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News