If you saw my story on the state budget battle that ran today, you'll see that Dr. Terry Madonna, political scientist and Franklin & Marshall College, gave me an interesting insight on the intensity of the debate.
He believes a lot of it has to do with next year's elections -- including the governor's race.
Since February, a $3 billion revenue deficit has raised its inconvenient head. The Pennsylvania state constitution requires a balanced budget, and there are only two ways the folks in Harrisburg are going to accomplish that: program cuts or tax increases.
Either action stands a good chance of ticking off large segments of the voters. So the lawmakers probably want to make the tough decisions and suffer the resultant public wrath now, so maybe people will be over it by the time next year's elections come around.
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