HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) \u2014 The $21 billion state budget Gov. Ed Rendell was to present to lawmakers Tuesday holds the line on state taxes, but calls for broad-ranging spending cuts and a hefty increase in debt-service costs that aides said stemmed from borrowing by the previous Republican administration.
\nThe budget also proposes more than $29 million in license and fee increases, although officials could not immediately provide a breakdown of those items before the governor\u2019s address to the Legislature. It also would slow down the phase-out of the state\u2019s Capital Stock and Franchise Tax, a levy on businesses.
\n\u201cThe budget I submit to you today lays bare the budget choices we face as a result of our current economic condition,\u201d the Democratic governor wrote in an introductory letter in the nearly 2-inch-thick budget document.
\nThe budget unveiled Tuesday, which represents a 1.4 percent increase in state spending, is designed to maintain most state services while erasing a projected $2.4 billion shortfall in tax collections for the fiscal year that starts July 1. It is only the first of two parts; In a few weeks, Rendell plans to follow up with a blueprint for fulfilling his campaign promises to increase school subsidies and slash local property taxes.
\nOne of the biggest increases in the budget is nearly $320 million for increased debt payments. Rendell\u2019s spokesman, Ken Snyder, said those expenses stemmed from borrowing to help balance this year\u2019s budget and hundreds of millions of dollars in capital-development project money that former Gov. Mark S. Schweiker awarded during his brief tenure.
\n\u201cThe bill came due under Rendell,\u201d Snyder said.
\nAmong the largest proposed spending cuts were $52 million from the elimination of grants for sewage-treatment plant operations and tens of millions of dollars in cutbacks in the Department of Public Welfare, including a $35 million reduction for patient services provided under the medical-assistance program and the elimination of $48 million for behavioral services.
\nOther cuts are likely to draw political flak from the Republican-dominated General Assembly, particularly the elimination of community-revitalization grants for local projects, a $70 million program protected in the past by lawmakers who view it as a re-election tool. Other politically sensitive cuts include the elimination of three education initiatives promoted by Rendell\u2019s GOP predecessors \u2014 performance incentive grants, school-improvement grants and education-support services \u2014 to save $77 million.
\n\u201cCompared to what other states are doing, it\u2019s a walk in the park,\u201d Rendell said of the cuts Monday in an impromptu interview on the eve of his first budget address as governor.
\nGovernors and legislators across the country are struggling to overcome budget shortfalls that are expected to total tens of billions of dollars next year. Other states have scaled back services, increased taxes, fired state workers and even released prison inmates early to balance their budgets.
\nFor the 2001-02 fiscal year, Pennsylvania relied largely on one-time revenues, except for a $600 million-plus increase in the cigarette tax, which more than tripled the levy to $1 a pack.
\nRendell has not ruled out tax increases in the second part of his budget, and he hopes to persuade the Legislature to legalize slot machines at the state\u2019s horse racing tracks to raise an additional $500 million a year.
\nRendell reached out to legislators Monday night and invited some to a breakfast budget briefing at the governor\u2019s residence Tuesday morning.
\n\u201cSo far, about 95 have accepted,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the interest is much higher because of the unique challenges that we face\u201d this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) \u2014 The $21 billion state budget Gov. Ed Rendell was to present to lawmakers Tuesday holds the line on state taxes, but calls for broad-ranging spending cuts and a hefty increase in debt-service costs that aides said stemmed from borrowing by the previous Republican administration. The budget also proposes more than $29 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}