“Follow Me. Follow Me to Freedom!!!”
That’s right. It’s budget time in Harrisburg, which means the Capitol Propaganda Machine has gone into overdrive. Or maybe even the stage past overdrive.
"Oh my God, they've gone to plaid!"
It seems like things are going to get considerably worse before they get any better, and if you think for a minute I’m not taking this seriously, think again. I know exactly what is at stake here and I take it extremely serious. But until the leaders of the varying factions make some fundamental progress, there really isn’t much for me to do but sit here and try and put a remotely entertaining spin on everything, while trying not to get sued for defamation (I can really only afford one lawsuit per year).
So to help get us all through these troubled times, I have turned to a man with extensive experience in crisis management. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you my Special Budget Advisor, Mr. Charlie Steiner.
I fully expect this to be the scene in the Capitol before too long.
Now that you’ve met Charlie, let’s get down to some serious budget talk.
Birthday Budget Blues
As I spend another birthday (my 31st) here on the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, we are grappling with the most difficult budget in my brief tenure as a State Representative. Colleagues with decades of experience have told me this is one of the worst budget situations they have ever seen. So what does it all mean?
Despite what you may hear in the media, there is no Constitutional deadline to have a new budget in place, but under the Pennsylvania Constitution, the Commonwealth loses the ability to spend money every year after 11:59 PM on June 30. Until a new budget is passed, everything comes to a grinding halt, with a few exceptions for essential services like guards in our state prisons. Most state employees will not be paid until the budget is passed, and yes, that includes me and my staff as well.
Just how much money are we talking about, anyhow? Last year’s state budget came in around $28 billion dollars. About eighty percent of that money went to three areas: education, corrections and public welfare. Before everyone gets fired up about spending money on “welfare”, it is important to know the overwhelming majority of the money in the Department of Public Welfare budget is dedicated to Medical Assistance, the program that pays for medical care for senior citizens. We are mandated by law to pay for these programs, so there really isn’t a whole lot there we can cut.
This year, we are looking at two budget proposals. The first is from Governor Rendell, which is about $29 billion dollars, and Senate Bill 850, passed by the Republican majority in the State Senate, which is about $27 billion dollars. Aside from major differences in where money should be spent, there is a clear $2 billion dollar difference in the proposals.
Governor Rendell has proposed increasing the personal income tax from 3.07% to 3.57%, which would raise $1.5 billion dollars to help fund his proposal. His theory is unless you raise the personal income tax, school districts will be forced to raise property taxes. The major hole in this logic is the fact that many local school districts raised their property taxes anyhow.
Like many of my colleagues, I have no desire to raise taxes, which means we are forced to look at major cuts, and of course everyone has different priorities about how those cuts should look. I wish I could tell you how things will shake out, but there are simply too many moving parts to this whole process to be able to make any sort of prediction at this point. Because of the economic downturn, our statewide tax collections are down and costs for human service programs like unemployment insurance and health care for senior citizens and children are on the rise.
Can we cut our way out of this mess? I honestly don’t know. I’m doing my very best to help keep government spending low without taking services away from people who truly need them. These are gut-wrenching decisions with no clear answers, so I guess the best birthday present I could wish for is a little wisdom and a whole lot of good luck.
