Came across this little nugget, an October story from The Associated Press, in researching previous state budget votes (emphasis is mine):

The deteriorating economy and rising costs for such big-ticket items as health care and prisons is leading the state government on a path to a massive deficit that will require a tax increase to erase, two senior state legislators said Monday.

The two state senators, Democrat Vincent J. Fumo of Philadelphia and Republican Gibson E. Armstrong of Refton, said the deficit will be larger than any in the past three decades. They also said that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to make up the difference by cutting costs alone.

“I honestly don’t know where you cut,” Fumo told reporters after a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the state budget. “We’re down to the bone.”

Armstrong, the committee chairman, added: “I don’t know of any program up here that we can get going the other way.”

The new guard Senate Republicans insist you can close the gap by cutting.