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For Immediate Release Budget Impasse Resulted From Differing Policies A column by Senator Bob Mensch Each year, the General Assembly’s single biggest task is passage of the state budget. This year that job took on greater importance and was extremely difficult. There were several times when it seemed like we were about to finalize a budget only to see those hopes quickly disappear. So, it’s really not surprising that the one burning question posed to legislators is: “Why did you guys let 101 days pass before you passed the budget?” The state budget is truly a numbers game and the key figures in this basic formula are: 102, 26 and 1. In order for the budget, or any legislation for that matter, to be finalized it must be approved by at least 102 of the 203 members of the House of Representatives, at least 26 of the 50 state Senators, and the Governor. And, all of those parties must agree to the exact language of the bill, down to every comma – or in this case – every decimal point. That was the biggest sticking point this year because each of the four legislative caucuses – the Senate Republicans, the Senate Democrats, the House Democrats and the House Republicans – all had their own exclusive priorities. I also believe that most everyone was a bit gun-shy this year considering the troubles that arose following the approval of last year’s budget. When the Governor unveiled his Fiscal Year 2009-10 budget proposal in February, we were already looking at a revenue shortfall of more than $1 billion. By the time the 2008-09 fiscal year ended in June that shortfall had mushroomed to more than $3 billion. That represented a revenue deficit of more than 10 percent of the budget for that year. In light of this unprecedented shortfall, we had to be mindful of history. During a milder recession in the early 1990s, Pennsylvania amassed a $1 billion deficit and in response raised taxes by $3 billion. That tax increase put Pennsylvania behind the eight ball for many years, crushed our business community, devastated our economic climate and limited our competitiveness with other states. Many of us went into this year’s budget process with the firm belief that the Legislature had to act in a fiscally responsible manner to address the economy by making the tough decisions to put Pennsylvania on a path for economic recovery in the future. Right at the heart of the impasse was a basic divide over how best to make that happen. In short, Republicans wanted to reduce spending to match the amount of money we had on hand without raising taxes, while the Democrats and the Governor wanted to raise revenues to match their spending plans. There were also sharp disagreements on how to use the $2.6 billion in anticipated funding from the federal government. Republicans wanted to use those funds as “bridge money” to cover shortfalls in funding for existing programs and services. Democrats wanted to use the federal money to add on to state funding. And, as I said before, there were divisions across party lines and in both the House and Senate on the essential and painful cuts that were needed to make the budget work. Many good programs and services saw deep cuts in their allotments of state dollars. That was unfortunate, but necessary. In the end, nobody got everything that they wanted. Not Republicans, not Democrats and not the Governor. Nobody could walk away and claim that they won the budget battle. Everyone made concessions in order to make the budget a reality. |
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