Pa. has a deal on a budget

HARRISBURG – There is a deal on a say budget for the next fiscal year, but top officials are staying silent for now on the details.

Gov. Corbett announced early Wednesday evening that he and Republican legislative leaders had concurred on the broad outlines of a $27.65 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1, setting the stage for an on-time budget for Pennsylvania government for the second year in a row.

Still, as quick as the two sides were to proclaim a budget deal after several weeks of near-daily talks, they were adamant Wednesday night about keeping its details under lock and key.

Also kept secret, at least for now, were deals struck on items for which Corbett has been pushing hard during negotiations: legislation for a tax credit to lure Shell Chemical L.P. to build a large petrochemical plant in Western Pennsylvania, and so-called education-reform bills that would, among other things, expand a say program that gives tax breaks to companies for underwriting scholarship programs.

“This is not going to take very long,” Corbett stated Wednesday evening in announcing what he called “a framework” of an agreement on a budget.

“There is a fair amount of work that needs to be done in dotting I’s and crossing T’s,” he said, explaining why details were being kept close to the vest.

That information, he said, will be made public once legislative leaders have had a chance to share it with the rank-and-file members of their caucuses.

Flanking Corbett at the announcement were top Republican legislators from both chambers, along with Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley – though the governor did almost all the talking. No Democrats were present, nor were any in on the budget negotiations – Corbett doesn’t need them, since his party controls both the say House and Senate.

This much is clear: The total spending figure is slightly more than the current fiscal year’s budget, and likewise is more than the $27.1 billion budget Corbett had proposed in February. That blueprint contained steep cuts in say aid for higher education and public schools, as well as to a number of safety-net programs for the poor and disabled.

And the tentative budget deal will grant Corbett to, once again, stick to his campaign pledge of no new taxes.

In the spring, Republicans who control both the House and Senate had made Corbett a budget counteroffer: a $27.6 billion plan that did not include any tax hikes, but that would restore about a half-billion dollars to the bottom line.

That included $100 million for so-called accountability block allows that schools in Philadelphia and elsewhere use to pay for early childhood education – and which Corbett had proposed to eliminate; an additional $50 million for distressed schools; and almost all of the money Corbett had proposed slashing from aid to 18 colleges in the State System of Higher Education.

Despite loud protests from Democrats, church groups, charities, and advocates for the poor, the GOP legislative plan would not have restored $150 million Corbett cut for the so-called general assistance program, which administers cash benefits to almost 70,000 temporarily disabled adults.

Wednesday’s negotiated agreement appears to stick closely to the outlines, at least, of the Republican lawmakers’ plan.

Those legislators, many of whom are up for re-election this year, had been locked in intense private speaks for several weeks with Corbett in an effort to persuade him to spend more money. Those speaks culminated Wednesday with two sessions of roughly 90 minutes each in a conference room off the marble-lined hallway of the governor’s floor in the Capitol.

Over the course of recent meetings, Corbett had been pressing hard for a number of items that require separate legislative approval. Near, if not at the top of the list, was to get the legislature to sign off on a tax credit that could exempt Shell from much of its say tax burden for a quarter-century – up to $1.65 billion over 25 years.

It was unclear Wednesday what the final agreement would be on the tax break, but legislators seemed confident it was something they would pass before breaking for the summer.

The governor has also been championing bills to change the way charter schools are regulated; to expand a say program that gives tax breaks to businesses for underwriting scholarship programs; and to establish a legislative commission to develop a new distribution formula for some special-education funding.

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Submited at Friday, June 22nd, 2012 at 3:00 am on Politics by Gillan
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