01/06/25 - 116 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/ys7ezy8e
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State Of Budget-- There Is No Rational Reason For Optimism
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The Senate and House played their roles this week to send the state budget negotiations to a conference committee of three members from each Chamber. House Democrats also took the unusual step of suspending the legislative calendar to focus on getting the budget done. The key question facing legislative leaders will be where to set the spending level-- at $27.1 billion like the Senate Republicans or at $29.1 billion like House Democrats where a tax increase is needed to balance the budget. Legislators took advantage of a procedural loophole to meet this week without the need to sunshine budget conference committee get togethers. Technically, the Senate has not "insisted" on its amendments made to the House Democratic budget bill last Monday after the House voted 150-49 to non-concur on those amendments Tuesday. The conference committee should be named on Monday. Late in the week after legislators, staff and members of the Administration met in several combinations on the budget, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) was quoted as saying, "I don't see any rational reason for optimism."
Meanwhile at a press conference on an unrelated topic, Gov. Rendell said he still thinks a Personal Income Tax increase is the fairest way to fund the deficit in the budget and said he hoped an agreement would be in place by the time conference committee members were picked on Monday. Gov. Rendell said if the Senate Republican budget were passed it would result in laying off 2-2,500 state employees, but if his budget is passed, it would result in 500 layoffs. As reported last week, none of the budget proposals treat environmental programs kindly. They range from cutting environmental funding by $552 million (Senate Republicans) to $459 million (House Democrats and the Governor). (Pa Environment Digest 7/20/09) Below is a comparison of some key line items in each budget plan along with what those same funding levels were in the 2002-03 budget.
Comparison Of Budget Proposals (numbers in thousands)
Notes
1. These numbers do not reflect the diversion of $174 million from the DCNR Oil and Gas Fund the Governor, Senate and House leaders have agreed to.
2. These numbers do not include another $143 million the House Democrats are proposing to divert from the DCNR Oil and Gas Fund or the additional $94 million the Senate Republicans are proposing to divert from the same fund.
3. The numbers are based on comparison tables produced by the House Democratic Appropriations Committee, the Senate Republican Appropriations Committeeand from the 2002-03 Governor's budget requestprepared by the Rendell Administration.
*Generally personnel line items.
**House Democrats pulled all higher education funding out of the budget and proposed to fund it separately with new revenues they have not identified.
Later in the week legislators, staff and members of the Administration met in several combinations on the budget, but "we're no where," according to one source. Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) was quoted as saying, "I don't see any rational reason for optimism." $1 Billion Lost In Environmental Funding Here's the list of major environmental funding cuts and diversions in the last six years prior to this year's budget proposals-- -- $324 million intended to support wastewater plant operations over the last six years to balance the budget; -- $100 million in 2002 from the Underground Storage Tank cleanup insurance fund to balance the budget (although this is slowly being repaid over 10 years);
-- $52.7 million “one-time” diversion from the Keystone Recreation, Parks and Conservation Fund in 2006 to balance the budget;
-- $50 million in 2007 and 2008 from the Environmental Stewardship Fund, which supports mine reclamation and watershed restoration, to fund the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program because there was no agreement on how to fund that program;
-- $50 million in 2007 and 2008 from the Environmental Stewardship Fund to pay debt service on the Growing Greener II bond issue and taking funding away from restoration projects each year for the next 25 years – reflecting a pattern of only environmental programs being required to address their own bond debt service;
-- $15 million from the Recycling Fund in 2008 to balance the budget; and
-- $18.4 million put into budgetary reserve in 2008-09 from the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Growing Greener Ends Compounding the impact of all these proposed environmental funding cuts is the fact that Growing Greener II funding will run out next year leaving little or no state funding for mine reclamation, watershed restoration, oil and gas well plugging and other Growing Greener programs. NewsClips: Governor Hopes For Budget Deal By Early Next Week Governor, Senate GOP Differ On Timing Of Budget Deal |
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7/27/2009 |
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