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Jul 9, 2009 8:26 pm US/Eastern
State Budget Stalemate Begins To Take Toll
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
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Today state workers ramped up the pressure on legislators to get serious with the budget crisis -- a crisis that means they are now working without pay.
KDKA
This is the ninth day without a state budget and the stalemate between Republicans and Democrats in Harrisburg is beginning to take a toll.
Today state workers ramped up the pressure on legislators to get serious with the budget crisis -- a crisis that means they are now working without pay.
And, at the same time, Auditor General Jack Wagner offered a compromise that, he says, should please both the governor and Republican lawmakers.
At the state office building downtown, state workers unloaded t-shirts and signs for a noontime rally next Tuesday.
"People will come out at lunchtime to express their outrage that a budget hasn't been passed yet and the fact that we aren't going to be paid," says Linda Torres of the PA Social Services Union/SEIU.
Torres says most people cannot afford to work without a paycheck.
"People are getting pretty frantic at this point in time because they have concerns. We're expected to continue to keep working, but you still have your child care costs, you have your transportation costs."
To say nothing of home mortgage payments.
"For the seventh year in a row, state employees are being held hostage," says AFCME Director Rich Caponi, who represents more than 4,500 state workers.
Caponi blames Harrisburg leaders for not negotiating a compromise full-time, all-the time.
"We've sat in collective bargaining for 24 hours straight, 36 hours straight. We don't hear that happening right now."
"You mean lock them up in a room?" KDKA political editor Jon Delano asked him.
"That's exactly right. Lock them up in room."
But the challenge is to find a compromise that saves state programs that the governor wants while not raising taxes that many legislators oppose.
State Auditor General Jack Wagner says he has plan to do just that.
"We have seven suggestions that can fill that $1.3 billion gap, and our numbers are very conservative."
Those include using half the Rainy Day Fund ($375 million) and half the legislature's surplus ($100 million), closing tax loopholes ($100 million), collecting unpaid taxes ($160 million), cutting ineligible people from Medicaid ($320 million), offering state workers early retirement ($50 million), and adding table games to casinos ($200 million).
But you won't find any new taxes in Wagner's plan.
"It is absolutely wrong. There are too many people hurting financially, and the last thing they can do is pay more taxes."
The governor's spokesman says some of Wagner's ideas have already been included -- but others will not yield the revenue claimed.
After meeting with Gov. Rendell last night, House and Senate Democrats are again going through the budget, line by line, looking for savings.
As for the Republicans, they've gone home -- at least in the Senate -- until 4pm on Monday.
The governor's spokesman says, "Senate Republicans just don't take this budget crisis seriously."
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