Legislative News Issue 1-09

House Passes Senate Budget, Rendell “Blue-lines” Most; Senate Override Fails

In an effort to restore paychecks for state workers, and fund core functions of government in the absence of an agreement on the full 2009-10 budget plan, House Democrats called up SB 850, which had been reported from the Appropriations Committee with a negative recommendation, for a final vote on August 4. The bill passed 195-3, and went to the Governor. Governor Rendell then used his “blue-line” authority to cut the vast majority of the funding in the bill, including all of the funding for the operations of the State Senate. This act brought the bill well under the spending limit, as it relates to projected revenue, but obviously does not meet the needs of the Commonwealth. The bill was then sent back to the Republican-controlled Senate, which has the option to override the veto (in whole or in parts) if they muster a 2/3 vote, and the House subsequently does likewise. Getting to a 2/3 vote in the Senate is unlikely, but an override in the House is out of the question.

Nevertheless, on August 19 the Senate Republican leadership brought up several lines that had been stricken for override votes. Each time, the votes fell short, as all but one Democrat, Sen. Lisa Boscola of Northampton County, voted to sustain the veto.

Meanwhile, the budget negotiators working on the Conference Committee on HB 1416 continue to work on a compromise that will eventually become the actual budget, once the parties agree on how much they want to spend, and then how much they will need to raise to get that much money. A raise in the Personal Income Tax now seems “off the table”, and in the latter part of the month, Senate Republicans also expressed little interest in expanding the sales tax. Due to a death in the family of House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans’ family, negotiations were further stalled in mid-month. Although the conference committee itself has not met for several weeks in public, parts of the committee and staff have been meeting with staff of the Rendell Administration to try to arrive at the essential numbers, while the rest of us wait anxiously for the long ordeal to be over. At this writing, that end does not appear to be imminent, but hope remains.