By Wayne Laepple
SUNBURY — Gov. Ed Rendell and the Legislature may be inching closer to a budget deal, according to one state representative, but not all of his colleagues agree.
"There is movement," said Rep. Merle Phillips, R-108 of RD2 Sunbury. "They're getting close on the amount, and that's the key. Tell us what we have to work with."
At the moment, the state faces a $3.25 billion budget deficit, and the final budget is expected to be between $27.5 billion and $28 billion. How to come up with the final number and how to pay for it, whatever it is, seem to be the major sticking points.
Phillips explained that once the two sides settle on the amount of the budget, things will fall into place quickly. Legislators are on a six-hour call, he said, which means they could be summoned to Harrisburg at any time to act on the new budget.
"It could be tomorrow, or it could be Friday," Phillips said on Wednesday.
The budget impasse has lasted almost eight weeks, a record for Pennsylvania, but it isn't the first time. In 1977 and 1978, there were delays in passing a budget.
In 1991, when Robert Casey Sr. was governor, the budget wasn't passed until mid-August, and in 2003, the full budget didn't pass until December. Several states went beyond the usual July 1 deadline to pass their budgets this year, but now only Pennsylvania and Connecticut still remain without a budget.
Phillips said he hasn't received many phone calls or e-mails lately about the budget impasse. Early on, he said, state employees who weren't getting paid bombarded him with e-mails, but after the governor signed a budget that allowed them to be paid, the calls and e-mails tapered off.
The only calls he's received lately have to do with West Nile mosquito spraying, which was suspended due to the budget hiatus.
"I'm trying to work on that," he said.
"I'm optimistic," Phillips said. "We have to come up with how much we have to spend. That's just my opinion."
Rep. Russell Fairchild, R-85 of Lewisburg, was not quite so sanguine.
"We may be getting close, but it will be sometime next week," he predicted.
Fairchild said he's getting calls from people who work for various agencies that rely on state funding.
"These are people whose line of work doesn't pay a whole lot, and now they aren't getting paid," he said.
Others, however, urge him to hold the line.
"I said that up front, that I won't vote for a broad-based tax increase," he said.
Rep. Robert Belfanti, D-107 of Mount Carmel, said he's never seen such intransigence in the 28 years he's been in the Legislature.
"It's very unfortunate," he said. "Meetings between the governor and the Legislature have been cancelled because the Republicans simply don't show up."
"I don't see one side or the other backing down on programs for senior citizens and mental health."
He said programs both sides supported such as state support for pre-kindergarten and all-day kindergarten for all public schools are expensive, but neither side wants to be seen as slashing them.
"We can't do much about corrections, either," he continued.
When the federal government cut back support for Medicare and Medicaid programs, the state was able to make up the difference, but that support is now in jeopardy, he said.
"I'm getting calls from directors of agencies, county commissioners, township supervisors, school board members and other like them. They can't meet their obligations and they want to know what they're supposed to do," he added.
Every time his cell phone rings, Belfanti said, he hopes it's a call from his staff summoning him to Harrisburg to vote on a budget. He hasn't been to Harrisburg often since he was hospitalized with pneumonia earlier this year, but he's ready to go for this vote.
Sen. John Gordner, R-27 of Berwick, has been in Harrisburg all week because the state Senate is in session.
"We've been getting updates from the leadership and holding productive discussions," he said, adding that he's been told the Senate Republican Caucus has been meeting regularly with the House Democratic leadership.
"We made an attempt last Wednesday to override the governor's veto of PHEAA funding for college students, funding for mental health and mental retardation services and for domestic violence and women's shelters. These were all funded at the exact numbers we'd agreed on earlier, but in each case, the vote was 30 and we needed 33 votes," he said.
"I don't have a feel for when" an agreement may be reached, Gordner continued, "but I think we're closer today than at any other point this year. At the end of the day, we will agree."
Three issues are holding up any budget agreement, Gordner said. These are no broad-based tax increase, a spending level less than the 2008-2009 budget, which had a $3 billion deficit, and the budget must be sustainable.
