How Pennsylvania got into its current budget mess

The Rendell Propaganda Machine is working overtime these days to deflect blame for the state missing its budget deadline for the fifth year in a row. (That's also how many years Rendell has been in the governor's mansion.)

On Tuesday, the governor announced that furlough letters were going out to 25,000 "nonessential" state workers telling them to stay home on Monday, July 9. The state doesn't have the money to pay them since the 2007-08 fiscal year began July 1 without an approved budget.

Rendell is blaming the Republican-controlled state Senate, saying the Legislature had 150 days to review his budget requests. As usual, the governor's nose was growing at the time he made his latest statement about the budget impasse.

The Senate approved a $27 billion budget on June 20 and sent it to the House, which is controlled by Democrats and is run by Dennis O'Brien, the Republican speaker who answers to Rendell.

On Saturday, June 30, the last day of the fiscal year, Speaker O'Brien joined 100 House Democrats in voting not to concur with the Senate version of the budget, thus creating the current budget crisis.

Forget about the spin coming from Rendell and the House Democrats. Here's the way the state got into the current mess.

The State Budget (HB 1286), as presented to the state House on June 30, while not perfect, is a responsible spending plan that supports the state’s priority needs. Moreover, this budget could be passed on time and could effectively support state governmental operations.

With this budget, the state would NOT need to increase taxes and it would effectively prepare the state for a responsible spending future, whereas excessive spending could lead to future tax increases.

• With $27 Billion in General Fund spending, this budget bill represents a $706.9 Million increase in spending or a growth rate of 2.7 Percent.

• In comparison to the governor’s plan, this budget spends $300 Million less but still supports the state’s essential needs.

• The state Senate passed this budget bill (HB 1286) by a vote of 49-1. House Republicans support this plan as well, but House Democrats refuse to enable this plan to go before the governor.

• This is the second opportunity for the House to pass a responsible budget and both times House Democrats have prevented this move from happening.

• Since the governor took office, each of his first four budgets together averaged more than a 6 Percent annual growth rate, which has raised the state’s fiscal concerns. This plan’s spending growth of 2.7 Percent falls well below the governor’s four-year average.

• House Bill 1286 matches the governor’s spending requests in priority areas such as 1) Basic Education, 2) Special Education, 3) MH/MR Funding and 4) provides more funding for Medical Assistance, restoring key funding for hospitals.

The governor, as of today is still demanding passage of his energy plan, transportation/mass transit, and parts of his healthcare plan, as well as funding his important budget initiatives and restoring funds to job-training, education mandate funding and other initiatives.

It's the governor, not the Legislature, who is holding up passage of the 2007-08 budget. It's the governor who is using 25,000 state workers as pawns.