Lawmakers take a look at spending plan

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Lawmakers take a look at spending plan
By GARY WECKSELBLATT

As he listened to Gov. Ed Rendell give his budget address Wednesday, state Rep. Scott Petri couldn’t help but think back to the old comedy team of Laurel and Hardy.

“Oh, boy, what a fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, Ollie,” Petri said from Harrisburg, where Rendell unveiled his $29 billion spending plan.

“I just don’t believe he cuts enough to get the job done,” said Petri, R-178. “We have to do what every household is doing right now, tighten our belts as much as we can. That’s not easy, but nothing can be excluded.”

Local legislators reacted to Rendell’s proposal, which comes at a time of a deepening economic recession that has left most states facing spending cuts and hoping for a federal monetary injection.

Pennsylvania is no different, expecting $2.4 billion in stimulus money from Washington to help overcome a shrinking economic base due to rising unemployment.

Among the highlights likely to spark debate:

Rendell would spend $130 million this year to shrink the cost of college education for students who attend the 14 public universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education or community colleges. For example, a student in a family making $60,000 a year would have tuition dropped from $12,010 to $4,750.

Funding the program could be problematic. Rendell suggests video poker games in bars, taverns, restaurants and private clubs — establishments with liquor licenses.

Rendell would cut $218 million, or 35 percent, for the Community and Economic Development Department that gives grants and aid to local governments, community organizations and businesses.

The governor is also suggesting eliminating 400 of the state’s 501 school districts to make public education more efficient.

While there would be no broad-based tax increases, the state cigarette tax would rise 10 cents a pack to $1.45.

There would be a tax on other tobacco products, including cigars, snuff and pipe tobacco — 36 cents an ounce for smokeless and loose tobacco and 36 cents per 10 cigars or cigarillos.

“He made a lot of very bold and courageous statements today,” said Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-10. “He put some stuff out there that’s very valuable and worth looking at.”

State Rep. John Galloway, a Democrat like Rendell, is all for the measure to merge districts. In Galloway’s 140th District is the Morrisville School District. Saddled with worn-out buildings and high taxes, the district has tried to be absorbed by neighboring Pennsbury.

“It’s an idea I fully support,” he said. “We could get down to 200 school districts and save taxpayers billions of dollars. It’s the smart way to go.”

Sate Rep. Paul Clymer, R-145, disagreed. “I’m opposed to it,” he said. “To be bigger is not always better. It would take away community pride. Teachers teach better when they’re in schools they’re accustomed to. I think students will get lost in this process. You lose a sense of history and pride and what you’re about as a community.”

McIlhinney wasn’t ready to commit. He said as Rendell spoke, “I tried to picture how it would work. Could we get to 100 school districts? I don’t know. Do we have some with 600 students that shouldn’t be there? Probably.”

Clymer, a critic of legalized gambling, reserved his real venom for Rendell’s plan to legalize video poker.

Citing 107,000 slot machines in Las Vegas that Pennsylvania can top under Rendell’s guidelines, Clymer said “he’s trying to turn us into Las Vegas. But we’re not a travel destination like Las Vegas. The people who gamble here are from here. The money we’re getting to feed this program is Pennsylvania money.”

Clymer lamented that gambling studies show it’s the poor and less educated who gamble. “Now you have the poor being lured into bars and taverns. The mixture of alcohol and gambling is lethal to begin with.”

A point seconded by Petri.

“In this economy do you want people to go to a bar and come home with no paycheck at all?” he asked. “And what does this do to the gaming industry that was supposed to give us property tax relief? And what does it do to the lottery fund (that pays for senior programs)?

“Every action has a consequence. This is over the top.”

While saying gambling is not a panacea, Galloway said the money should not be used for student aid. “I think it should be used for property taxes to directly affect the people in those municipalities (where the machines are located).

McIlhinney called the tuition plan “rather ambitious, but you can’t dismiss anything on day one. But as I’m sitting here now I’m leaning against it.”

Of cuts to local governments, Clymer said there’s going to be “universal pain. We have to balance the budget and work together as never before.”

Petri, a member of the Appropriations Committee, said in the coming weeks he’ll be “digging through every line item and looking for every savings and dollar I can find. We must expand the base of people who are employed. That’s what our mantra has to be.”

Said Galloway, “It’s my contention we should go even further and fundamentally change the way we do business here. I see this as an opportunity. This could be one of our better days in Harrisburg. We’ve taken our hits here, and rightfully so. Hopefully we’re up to the task.”

McIlhinney represents Falls, Lower Makefield, Morrisville, Tullytown, Newtown, Newtown Township, Upper Makefield, Yardley, 20 municipalities in Central and Upper Bucks, 2 Montgomery County communities. Petri’s district includes Northampton, Wrightstown, Ivyland, portions of Upper Makefield, Upper Southampton, Warwick. Galloway represents Bristol, Morrisville, Tullytown, Falls, 2 districts in Bristol Township, 1 district in Middletown. Clymer represents 14 municipalities in Upper Bucks.