Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I genuinely figured that we'd have a new state budget by the time the July 4th weekend was over.
I don't know about you folks, but I'm starting to get a little cold sweat going.
Basically, it comes down to a standoff between the Republicans who dominate the Senate, and Gov. Ed Rendell and his fellow Democrats who dominate the House.
It's interesting, in a queasy kind of way, to speculate about who has the most to lose. On the one hand, the Republicans probably wouldn't mind seeing Rendell get the blame for a budget crisis, in light of next year's gubernatorial race. Whoever ends up as the GOP candidate could argue that things didn't go so well under the last Democratic administration.
On the other hand, it could easily backfire. I gotta hand it to Pennsylvania's Republicans -- they hold their government representatives accountable. The GOP in Harrisburg took a bigger hit than the Democrats in the wake of that pay raise flap a few years back, losing their majority status in the House and barely hanging onto it in the Senate.
Could be that they just can't afford to risk ticking off their base with an extended budget standoff right now.
I guess we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long. Here's an Associated Press story about it:
HARRISBURG, Pa.--State budget negotiations that include Gov. Ed Rendell are scheduled to resume in Harrisburg, nearly a week after Pennsylvania's fiscal year began without a deal in place.
A spokesman for Rendell said the governor plans to attend a meeting for legislative leaders scheduled to begin late Monday afternoon.
Rendell and his Democratic allies in the General Assembly are pushing for a mixture of spending cuts and new revenue sources, while Republican leaders oppose higher taxes.
There were no signs of progress after two lengthy sessions at the executive residence last week.
The pay of many state workers will be held up, starting on July 17, until there's a resolution.
The national economic downturn led to a revenue shortfall of nearly $3.3 billion for the year that just ended.
