Budget fallout
We wonder if Gov. Rendell and members of the state Legislature are aware of, or care about, the grief they’re causing county governments because they can’t settle on a budget for fiscal 2009-10. A new budget was due July 1. It’s now about a month late. Talk is that it could be October before there’s an agreement. That’s what Montgomery County Republican Commissioner Chairman Jim Matthews says, and he got his information from what he said were “pretty good sources.” Matthews was in Harrisburg last week and apparently didn’t see or hear anything of an encouraging nature – only a governor and a Democratic-controlled House supporting a budget calling for tax increases and a Republican-controlled Senate whose budget cuts programs and taps reserve funds but does not increase taxes. Senators have vowed they’re not going to cave; members of the House and Rendell are just as adamant they won’t gut key programs. Thus the impasse.
Much in the news are reports of the state’s being unable to pay its bills and state workers becoming increasingly unhappy about reduced paychecks and the prospect of maybe no paychecks in the weeks ahead.
Less publicized, though no less important, is the effect the suspension of state payments is having on the counties, which depend on Harrisburg to help fund many programs and services. Matthews expressed particular concern about “what that may mean to our neediest residents.”
Republican boards of commissioners, in particular, are on the spot:
Do they back the state Senate GOP and its spending cuts, which will likely have an impact on county programs? Or do they side with Rendell and House Democrats who want to use tax increases, including an increase in the personal income tax, to provide adequate funding for what they consider essential programs and services?
The longer the state goes without a budget, the more serious the situation becomes. You can argue all day over what got Pennsylvania into its current budget predicament, but that isn’t going to fix the problem.
Despite what GOP senators have said, they’ll have to give some ground; so, too, will the Democrats. For the good of all Pennsylvanians, let’s hope it doesn’t take another three months. Lawmakers in Harrisburg have already brought about enough hardship. No one wants higher taxes. But no one wants drastic program cuts, either.
Find the balance, ladies and gentlemen. And do it quickly.