Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Posted by: Gary Tuma
2009 - 2010 Budget Stalemate
The stalemate over the 2009-10 state budget will have to be solved through compromise. Governor Rendell understands that. Republicans in the legislature seem not to.
While the Republicans criticize the Governor for proposing a tax increase, and clamor for spending reductions instead, they ignore the $2 billion in cost-cutting steps that Rendell has already taken.
The Governor eliminated more than $500 in spending from the 2008-09 budget during the fiscal year that just ended. The proposed 2009-10 budget that he released in February reduced spending in more than 400 appropriations by another $1 billion. Then in the final week of the 2008-09 fiscal year, Rendell cut another $500 million from his February proposal as he deals with a $3.2 billion budget shortfall caused by the national recession.
In that most recent round, the Governor adopted the GOP’s suggestions and chopped money from more than 200 line items that Senate Republican had cut in their plan -- Senate Bill 850.
Republicans focus instead on the overall spending number, as if pretending that state government doesn’t have to deal with certain mandatory costs increases under federal law and contractual obligations, which neither the Legislature nor Governor Rendell can control.
Meanwhile, the Republicans have not moved off of their now-outdated numbers in SB 850 (it has gone out of balance by more than $1 billion because if declining revenue since they passed it in May.) As negotiations go nowhere at the state Capitol, they keep repeating that the Governor ought to be cutting spending before asking for higher taxes.
But he already has cut; he already has compromised. It is the GOP that refuses to budge on the budget.
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