Two years ago, the day was about dazzling and ambitious new programs like expanded health care and highway and bridge improvements.
Last year, the day was about creative devices (i.e. taxes) to bring about parts of the ambitious agenda yet unfinished.
Each time, the Democratic Governor Ed Rendell threw out eye-popping spending plans with accessories that could impress and build for success, despite a hefty price tag. And each time, in the Capitol lobby after Rendell’s state of the state address, Republican leaders denounced it as tax and spend and too costly for taxpayers to sustain.
Something’s different this year. From tomorrow’s story:
State Sen. Mike Brubaker, a Republican on the chamber’s Appropriations Committee, said Rendell is trumpeting a bipartisan message.
“It’s true the governor is demonstrating some fiscal restraint and he’s willing to enter these negotiations with a spirit of bipartisanship,” Brubaker said. “I think he truly recognizes this unprecedented economic time our county and the world is in.”
That was Brubaker’s response to how Rendell despite facing a $2.3 billion budget deficit - a blow to the state’s fiscal stomach - will not propose raising the personal income or sales taxes. Brubaker has never been a firebrand or someone to take cheap political shots at someone across the ideological divide, but still, his comments indicate that this year’s budget negotiations have a much different sense about it.
For now …
Check back tomorrow for all-day coverage and analysis of Rendell’s budget address.
