Inexcusable
Pennsylvania has a budget crisis. What it all means and who will be affected and how varies with whom you talk. But make no mistake: This is a serious situation any way you look at it. The Roman Emperor Nero is said to have played his fiddle while the city went up in flames around him. But members of the state Legislature weren’t even bothering to play a tune or two on this final weekend before yesterday’s budget deadline. After top legislators made no progress in their budget discussions with Gov. Rendell on Thursday, the House and Senate simply went home for the weekend. So, with state workers facing missed paychecks in a couple of weeks, the state Treasury Department on the verge of losing its spending authority and state agencies unsure of what they will and will not be able to do without a budget, where was the urgency among elected officials to agree on a spending plan? For lawmakers to abandon the capital for the weekend with such an essential piece of business undone borders on dereliction of duty.
And it’s not that Democrats led by Rendell and Republicans are close to an agreement, with just a few loose ends to tie up. There appears to be a major – that’s MAJOR in big letters – impasse. The governor and the Dems are pushing for a mixture of moderate budget cuts and tax increases, including an increase in the state income tax, to close a budget hole of more than $3 billion. Republicans favor a decrease in spending compared with last year, a proposal that would require deeper cuts but no higher taxes.
What’s likely – eventually – is some manner of compromise, which is the way these things inevitably are resolved.
But legislators and the governor should be working around the clock to achieve an agreement sooner rather than later. Having dillied and dallied, they have no excuse for drawing out the negotiating process. There should be no talk about “going home” until the budget is signed, sealed and delivered.
Here’s an idea to light a fire under the House and Senate (and the governor, too): For every day the budget is late, legislators and the executive should be docked a day’s pay.
We guarantee that would get them moving and doing the job they were elected to do.
As the deadlock drags on, the lawmakers won’t suffer. Who gets hurt are state workers and the millions of residents who rely on the work they do.
Is there anything more irresponsible than that?