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 […]

[Read more →]

The latest on the Pa. budget standoff.

[Read more →]

… and watch this. It’s gotta beat anything else on the tube tonight. Seriously.

[Read more →]

John Baer of the Philly Daily News is today’s must-read.

We ought to start sending sheep to the Legislature. I know you think we already do, but I mean for real. Hear me out. We save a ton of money even if we phase them in. Most sheep don’t drive so we save on taxpayer-financed car […]

[Read more →]

Brad Bumsted of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has Rendell on the record:
“This budget is not balanced for this year, and it’s a billion dollars short for next year,” Rendell said in Pittsburgh. He said he plans to tell the legislative leaders who announced the agreement that he would “absolutely” veto the measure.
“If they override it, they […]

[Read more →]

Gov. Ed Rendell’s office is putting the finishing touches on a statement opposing the so-called budget agreement reached by three of the four legislative caucuses, a spokesman said. But his chief of staff, Steve Crawford, told The Post-Gazette Rendell cannot support the plan.
The spending proposal by Senate Republican and Democratic leaders and House Democrat leaders […]

[Read more →]

You decide. From Capitolwire.com Bureau Chief Peter L. DeCoursey:
HARRISBURG (Sept. 10) – A $27.945 billion proposed budget is expected to be announced Friday morning at a joint press conference of leaders of the House Democrats, Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats.
House Democrats were ardently lobbying Rendell to agree to the deal Thursday night, administration officials said, […]

[Read more →]

Is it for real this time?
State lawmakers are nearing a handshake agreement on the budget, according to various media outlets. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports tonight that “aides confirmed that the administration and legislative leaders have agreed on an overall spending figure of roughly $28 billion - less than Rendell had sought but more than Senate […]

[Read more →]

In Connecticut, that is. The state budget there is to take effect Sunday because Gov. M. Jodi Rell is reluctantly letting it become law without her signature. According to The AP, Rell criticized the budget as calling for more borrowing and vague plans for future spending. But the governor said she would allow it to […]

[Read more →]

 
State Senate Republicans will try today to override nearly $2.2 billion in spending items vetoed by Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell in the seven-week-old partisan budget stalemate. A successful veto override requires two-thirds majority votes in the House and Senate. Such an effort would face an uphill climb in the Senate, where cooperation from four Democrats […]

[Read more →]