Final vote expected Tuesday or Wednesday
By Eric Boehm | PA Independent
HARRISBURG — House Republicans advanced their version of the state budget Monday and are preparing for a final vote in the chamber on Tuesday.
Because there were no changes made to the bill, the House will not have to wait 24 hours before taking a final vote. Republicans moved the bill to its final step with a party-line vote of 110-89.
Most of the debate Monday focused on what to do with higher-than-expected tax revenues in the current fiscal year.
While the state still faces a $4 billion deficit, tax collections have come in more than $500 million ahead of expectations through the first 10 months of the fiscal year. In March, Gov. Tom Corbett proposed a budget with an anticipated $80 million tax revenue surplus.
Democrats called for the inclusion of the state’s revenue surplus in the final spending total of the budget, but Republicans resisted moving the final spending figure even as the tax receipts have continued to exceed expectations.
State Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Monroe, said the Republicans' insistence on a $27.3 billion bottom line was “unreasonable and too rigid,” and the additional revenues should be spent on education, human services and transportation.
“This budget has been prepared on false assumptions,” said state Rep. Bryan Barbin, D-Cambria. “The problem with this budget is that it will hurt real people.”
Republicans fired back that spending all available funds was irresponsible and pointed to ongoing economic uncertainty.
“You can’t spend it, unless you’re sure it’s going to be there,” said state Rep. Mario Scavello, R-Monroe. He warned that overspending caused the state to have a $4 billion deficit in the first place.
State Rep. Scott Petri, R-Bucks, said the Legislature made the mistake of overspending during the past two years and suggested the Legislature could add the revenue later in the year, if tax receipts continue to climb.
“I think you’re much better off doing a supplemental funding bill later on than spending it right now when you don’t know if you’ll have it,” Petri said.
Democrats called for the bill to be redirected from the House floor to the Appropriations Committee so the higher-than-anticipated revenue could be included. The Republican majority in the state House defeated the plan by a vote of 110-89 along party lines.
The $27.3 billion figure represents a $700 million reduction from the current fiscal year.
House Republicans may not have changed the final spending figure, but they have rearranged some of the spending lines, most notably restoring $210 million of the governor’s proposed basic education cuts and $150 million to higher education with about $400 million in cuts to the state Department of Public Welfare.
The state House is set for a final vote on the budget bill as early as Tuesday, at which time the bill will move to the Republican-controlled state Senate.
Senate Republicans have been less firm about the $27.3 final spending figure.
Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Chester, said the senator would consider using some of the unanticipated revenue, but only in the context of an on-time and fiscally responsible budget.
Several House Republicans said they expected the state Senate to add revenue to the budget.
A number of smaller question marks remain to be sorted out before the budget deadline of June 30, including the final spending figure and the possible inclusion of a natural gas impact fee proposed by Senate President Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson.
The senator wants to include the impact fee — which would require gas companies to pay $1,000 per well drilled and would be retroactive to include well drilled since the beginning of 2010 — in the budget agreement.
On Monday, Speaker of the House Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, said he was unsure if an impact fee plan could pass the state House, but it would depend on the distribution of the revenue.
In Scarnati’s plan, funding goes to counties and municipalities with drilling operations and the state’s conservation districts, which are county-level environmental programs.
State Rep. Thomas Quigley, R-Montgomery, said the bill must get moving so it can be passed on time.
“What we’re going to pass this week is not the final product,” Quigley said. “I think our approach is to get the budget done on time and not worry about all these ancillary issues.”
