Top Republican assails Gov. Rendell's budget

From the Inquirer.

Top Republican assails Gov. Rendell's budget
By Angela Couloumbis Posted on Tue, Apr. 28, 2009
Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG - A top Senate Republican yesterday set the stage for a budget showdown with the Rendell administration, saying that the governor's plan reflected "short-term thinking" and that he could not support it without major changes.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman (R., Centre) said the Republican-controlled Senate would soon pass a counterproposal that would call for spending 5 percent less than Gov. Rendell's $29 billion spending plan for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

The Republican alternative also would not increase any taxes, he said.

"If we were to adopt [the governor's] plan, we in the legislature would be committing something akin to budgetary malpractice," Corman said at the monthly press club luncheon in Harrisburg.

Corman did not say how Republicans would achieve their spending cuts. He and others have said those details would be released early next month.

Corman said the Republican plan called for reducing Rendell's proposed budget to close to $27.5 billion. While the GOP plan would include the roughly $2 billion in federal stimulus aid that Rendell's budget relies on, it would reject Rendell's proposal to add taxes on tobacco sales, natural-gas extraction, and health-insurance premiums.

Corman acknowledged that reducing Rendell's budget "does not come without pain and does not come without political peril."

"But we absolutely have to do it, and we have to do it now to get our economic house in order," he said.

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo yesterday countered that "at a time when more Pennsylvanians are looking to government for essential services, it appears the senator's proposal will provide less of them."

He added that "the governor's vision for the commonwealth's future has been endorsed by the electorate twice," and that "the time for rhetorical flourish is long past - it's time to do the hard work necessary to craft a responsible budget."

The deadline to pass the budget is July 1. Since Rendell took office in 2003, no budget has been passed on time.

This year appears no different, with Republicans once again showcasing wide ideological and fiscal differences with the administration.

Rendell's proposed budget includes no broad-based tax increases, but it does seek a 10-cent-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax and new levies on smokeless tobacco and natural-gas reserves.

While education, welfare, corrections, and probation and parole would receive budget increases, every other department faces cuts.

Rendell has proposed eliminating funding for 101 state programs, including schools for the deaf and children of military veterans, and trimming spending for 346.