09/02/24 - 146 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/yck6vkb4
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Governor Asks House To Send Him Budget Bill, Conference Committee Suspends Meetings
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With budget conferees making little progress, Gov. Rendell asked House Democrats to send Senate Bill 850, the Senate Republican budget bill, to his desk. He promised to veto all but 75 budget line items in the bill he said were needed to keep the critical functions of state government going until there is a comprehensvie budget settlement. He also said he would initiate the layoff of 300 state workers as he promised to do last week to help further reduce state operating costs. On Thursday, Conference Committee "moderator" Rep. Dwight Evans suspended the Conference Committee meetings until he, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) and Gov. Rendell can meet on budget issues. The first closed door meeting between Gov. Rendell and legislative leaders Friday was termed "productive" by Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware), but there was no budget deal. A follow up meeting is planned for Sunday morning. House Majority Leader Todd Eachus (D-Luzerne) said late Friday they would bring Senate Bill 850 up for a vote Monday and oppose all amendments as a vehicle to get state workers paychecks. "This is not a budget," Rep. Eachus said. Bridge Budget "I intend to approve only the funds that are necessary for the operation of government services and for public safety. I will veto all other line item appropriations," Gov. Rendell said. "I do not consider Senate Bill 850 (Corman-R-Centre) to be a budget; it is simply a bridge to allow us to pay state workers and ensure the continued efficient operation of state government -- nothing more. "I had resisted taking this step until now because I was hopeful that the administration and the four legislative caucuses would agree soon on a budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year that began July 1. But in the past few days, communication between legislative leaders and the administration has not been able to close the significant gap. This gap is due in large part to the continued belief on the part of the Senate Republicans that they feel no responsibility to negotiate, compromise or lead," the Governor added.
What's In Senate Bill 850 Senate Bill 850 is the original Senate Republican budget passed in May which contains steep cuts to personnel line items, especially for environmental agencies. It is not the amended version of House Bill 1416 (Evans-D-Philadelphia) that is now in Conference Committee that included some small gains for a limited number of environmental line items. (Pa Environment Digest 7/27/09) Senate Republicans cut an additional $77.4 million from environmental agencies, over and above the initial $77 million in cuts proposed by Gov. Rendell. Even more cuts were proposed by Gov. Rendell over the last few weeks. (Pa Environment Digest 6/29/09) The additional cuts in Senate Bill 850 include: Agriculture -- $8.9 million, Conservation and Natural Resources -- $19.1 million and Environmental Protection -- $49.4 million, and mostly to line items related to funding for personnel costs. They also include reducing funding for county conservation districts by $1 million or 25 percent. Because personnel line items are cut more for these environmental agencies than many others, there may be a disproportionate impact to Agriculture, DEP and DCNR in allocating state worker layoffs as Gov. Rendell makes those decisions. There will be no way to tell for sure until the layoffs are announced. Senate Republicans also zeroed out line items for local government Sewage Enforcement Grants, Sewage Facilities Planning and Stormwater Management Grants as well as Consumer Energy Education and Assistance. In this version of the budget, funding is also uncertain for the Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) farm conservation tax credit program which begins to accept appllications for credits August 3 (see separate story). This budget bill assumes $250 million in savings from the $324 million in funding allocated for all tax credits, but does not say specifically which ones would be eliminated or reduced. Like all other budget proposals, Senate Bill 850 zeros out funding for brownfields redevelopment and land use planning at the Department of Community and Economic Development, Act 339 operating assistance for wastewater plants, Pennsylvania Sea Grants and paying back funds borrowed from the Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Fund. Again, like all the budget proposals, the Senate Bill assumes the transfer of at least $174 million in Marcellus Shale drilling revenue from DCNR's Oil and Gas Fund to the General Fund to help balance the budget. Conference Committee Meetings The first two days of Conference Committee discussions this week were taken up arguing over who would chair the committee (the chair is normally from the Chamber where the bill originated, in this case the House), what the procedural rules for the committee would be and predictably, what room they should meet in to allow for open and transparent discussions. Senate/House Republicans said the committee should start with what the total spend will be and the House/Senate Democrats wanted to discuss spending for individual line items, then talk about how to raise the funds. Four votes are needed to pass any Conference Committee agreement-- two from each Chamber. The Senate team has two Republicans and one Democrat and the House team has two Democrats and one Republican. You begin to see how difficult it will be to get the votes needed for an agreement. Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) said Rep. Evans failed to keep an agreement to have staffers from the Governor's Budget Office at the meeting to answer questions about available tax revenues for the new fiscal year. He pointed to empty seats on the stage of the Forum Building where the meeting is taking place and said if the budget was so important to the Governor, then he'd have his people there. NewsClips: PA Budget Talks Termed Productive, But No Deal |
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8/3/2009 |
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