Results tagged “Gov. Ed Rendell” from Fun with Politics

Here's a news release from some local Republicans regarding the state budget.

Last week, it was really looking like Rendell and the legislative leaders had reached a compromise. Then it pretty much fell apart over the weekend.

This morning, I stopped by the county commissioners' work session and talked to President Commissioner Steve Chronister about the situation. He and the other commissioners still have a tough choice on their hands -- borrow money and pay the resulting financing costs, only to risk having the state pass a budget the next day and make the whole thing unnecessary? Or refrain from borrowing money, and risk running out of funds if the state lawmakers don't approve a budget soon?

Chronister hopes that if this impasse continues, the governor will arrange for some kind of interim funding measure for human care agencies, like he did for state worker paychecks. If he's going to do something like that, it better be within the next week or so.

Anyway, here's the press release:

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.

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.

The big budget dispute is getting all of the attention up Harrisburg way. But lawmakers have a lot of down time while the caucus leaders are negotiating, and this time of year is typically when they pass a lot of legislation before summer recess.

By the way, "summer recess" isn't as galling as it sounds. It just means they're in their district offices instead of Harrisburg.

Anyway, here's a news release regarding from legislation from state Sen. Mike Waugh, R-Shrewsbury, who represents most of York County.

Gov. Ed Rendell just announced that he's proposing a temporary personal income tax increase. I'll post the whole new release. But first, here's a comment by state Rep. Ron Miller, R-Jacobus.

And here's the governor's news release:

Now that we seem to be heading for another state budget showdown between Gov. Ed Rendell and the Senate Republicans, I thought it might be fun to take a trip down Memory Lane.

Here's a story I wrote back in 2007, when a standoff between Rendell and legislative Republicans led to a missed deadline for the budget, and state parks closed down for the day.

As you'll read, I headed out to Gifford Pinchot State Park to talk to campers who were being kicked out. There, I had a conversation that still strikes me as funny in a rather sad kind of way.

I encountered four very nice people from Australia. One couple had been living in Canada for several years. The other couple was visiting them.

They had planned the trip that took them through Pennsylvania for some time. They got word over the Internet that a budget impasse might close the park, but decided not to alter their agenda.

America's a civilized country, they reasoned. Members of the Pennsylvania government wouldn't really let the state's parks close solely in the interests of political posturing, would they? Surely, they would make a reasonable compromise based on the public good before that became necessary.

Heh heh heh! You're a loooong way from Oz, mates!

Anyway, here's the story ...