By MARK SCOLFORO - Associated Press Writer
HARRISBURG, Pa.--The lengthy and
sometimes chaotic process of negotiation that resulted in a tentative
state budget deal has cleared the way for an even tougher challenge for
legislators: getting an affirmative vote by the General Assembly's
rank-and-file by this weekend.
Legislative leaders and Gov. Ed
Rendell struck the tentative agreement on Monday night that ended
furloughs and a partial government shutdown. Now, with details just
starting to come into focus, the reaction on Tuesday was mixed.
"There
wasn't a revolt," said House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin, after
Republicans met to discuss the deal. "There's just still a lot of
questions."
The budget calls for $27.2 billion in spending. Along
with $300 million in transit funding being taken out of the general
fund, that will be a 4.5 percent increase over 2006-07.
Legislative
reforms passed earlier this year add a new twist to the process by
slowing down consideration of the budget, whereas in previous years
leaders could grease the procedural skids for final passage once they
and the governor signed off on a plan.
That means the final votes
probably will not be taken until Saturday or Sunday, giving lawmakers -
and lobbyists - the chance to pore over the fine print.
"It's
mischief time right now," said Sen. Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, a
veteran of Harrisburg budget battles. "I wish everybody would get out
of this building."
Rendell told reporters Tuesday he was
satisfied to be making progress on transportation, health care, energy
and education, even if the final product will not be what he first
proposed.
"We all blinked a little bit," he said, adding that if
"there's no mutual blinking, there's no budget, and there's no
legislation that comes out of here."
He said the budget keeps the
growth of spending well below that of most other states, and that the
significant borrowing his deal envisions keeps Pennsylvania comfortably
within what Wall Street considers the state's capacity to accommodate.
Rendell
won a special session in September on his energy independence strategy,
billions for highways and transit, a vote by November on borrowing $500
million for the Jonas Salk for biotech investment fund and support to
build a new Pittsburgh Penguins arena and expand the Pennsylvania
Convention Center in Philadelphia.
"The caucus wanted investments
and they got them, and people were very happy today," said Johnna Pro,
spokeswoman for Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans,
D-Philadelphia. "This was about our vision, this was about taking
action."
Miskin said the House Republicans felt generally good
about accomplishing their goals of preventing new taxes, controlling
spending and limiting borrowing. But several members said they would
not pronounce judgment until they had a better handle on the details.
"In a sense, you've got the frame, but the innards are still missing," Miskin said.
Not everyone was applauding the budget compromise.
David
Masur, director of PennEnvironment, referred to a shift of Keystone
Recreation, Parks and Conservation Fund money into hazardous sites
cleanup as "the largest cut in conservation funding in Pennsylvania
history."
Matthew J. Brouillette, president of the Commonwealth
Foundation, which advocates for conservative fiscal policies, said the
transportation element depends on a tolling plan for Interstate 80 that
may never get federal approval.
"We're going to throw good money
after bad," Brouillette said. "We're going to strap taxpayers with
higher debt, and we're going to expand the political patronage playing
fields of Harrisburg politicians, and it's going to ultimately fail to
solve our transportation funding problems."
And Rep. Daryl
Metcalfe, R-Butler, said he would vote against the budget, predicting
many of his fellow House Republicans will join him.
"The
conversation should have been, 'How do we return $650 million to the
taxpayers?,'" the amount by which state tax revenue outpaced
projections, he said. "Instead the conversation was, 'How do we keep
the governor at bay and eat up the surplus?'"
There are some
loose ends, notably over raising the state's debt ceiling by $500
million for civic redevelopment projects around the state. That plan
has already passed the Democratic controlled House, and Pro insisted
there was an understanding that the Senate will take it up this fall.
But
Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi,
R-Delaware, said there was no deal of any kind on the bill.
The
Monday night budget deal ended after one day the unpaid furloughs of
23,562 state workers, and on Tuesday Rendell said he was still
considering a proposal to reimburse them for the pay they lost.
