Recently in Budget impasse Category

Yeah, that was lame. Whatever.

When I talked to local state representatives yesterday, Republicans were waiting to see if an amendment by state Rep. Ron Miller, R-Jacobus, was going to pass before deciding if they could support a bill that would legalize table games.

Miller's amendment would have required any revenue from the games to go toward property tax relief. And no, it didn't pass in the Democrat-dominated House.

I've attached the press release. Miller's got a point. The legalization of slots five years ago didn't exactly make the state's property tax problem disappear overnight.

The state budget that appears to be close to passing includes a tax on tickets for theater, performing arts events and concerts.

Here's the text of a press release from the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance arguing against it.

Personally, my concern is that cultural institutions such as the Strand Capitol will be so hard up that they'll have to start booking acts like this:

Word out of Harrisburg is that Gov. Rendell and the legislative leaders may have finally ... FINALLY ... reached a compromise that will end Pennsylvania's status as the only state not yet to have ratified its budget for the current fiscal year (which began July 1, by the way).

Man, this has just been ... You know what? Rather than trying to describe how torturous this whole process has been, maybe I can find something roughly equivalent to illustrate it.

Missed a day yesterday. Sorry. I'm still working my way through a post-vacation funk.

So we're still waiting on a state budget. It looks like York County commissioners are putting off the decision whether to borrow money or not for a little while, in light of the recent developments.

Personally, I think that's a good call. I was under the impression that the Sept. 15 deadline they originally cited was more of the self-imposed than the do-or-die variety.

Vacation's over. Crap.

Anyway, last week saw some promising developments with the state budget. Three of the four caucuses in the legislature have agreed on a tentative $28 billion spending plan.

This was originally how I was going to start this post ...

"Members of the state Senate, where Republicans have a majority, are going to try to override Gov. Ed Rendell's earlier vetoes to get parts of the state budget passed."

Yeah, that's an accurate and concise description of what's going to happen. But I wouldn't blame anyone for reading it and saying " What the ... huh?"

Short explanation: The budget for the new fiscal year still isn't passed seven weeks after it was due, because of an impasse between the Democrats and Republicans in Harrisburg over state spending.

But all the underlying parliamentary moves and countermoves might be kind of confusing by now. Let's see if I can translate this into some approximation of coherent English.