Spending and tax bills approved by the Republican-controlled Senate earlier today are on their way to the House, where Democrats are threatening to strip $12 million in what they believe are discretionary grants from the $27.8 billion plan and quickly send it back to the Senate. Senate Republicans, meantime, say those $12 million in line items aren’t WAMs, short for “walking around money,” short for “discretionary grants.”
Erik Arneson, a spokesman for Senate Republicans, sent the following memo around this morning:
There are no “WAMs” in the spending plan approved by the Senate today with overwhelming bipartisan support (Senate Bill 1085, which passed 43 to 6). It was made perfectly clear at this morning’s meeting of legislative leaders that any funding decisions necessary to implement the 2009-10 state budget contained in SB 1085 will be made exclusively by the Rendell administration. In fact, the governor’s chief of staff directly said, “There are no WAMs in this budget.” That includes all of the line items which House Democratic leaders claim are “WAMs.”
It is beyond comprehension that House Democratic leaders want to cut funding for health care clinics, acute care hospitals, the Safe Neighborhoods program, the Violence Reduction program, and the Minority Business Development program. At the same time they are proposing these cuts, they are proposing to increase House legislative accounts by $11 million. So the House is proposing to cut funding for health clinics, acute care hospitals, and the Safe Neighborhoods program in order to spend that money on themselves. The House should take up SB 1085 promptly and end this budget impasse.
House Dems beg to differ.
