Partial Pennsylvania budget to be signed

HARRISBURG — State employees could be paid early next week after Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell today signs a portion of a state budget for core government expenditures.

Rendell said Tuesday he would use his line-item veto power to cut a $27.3 billion spending plan by more than 50 percent.

"It will be considerably less than 50 percent of the overall budget," Rendell said. Though he mostly will approve salaries, there will be some expenditures he spares, such as state money for renal dialysis because of the critical nature of that expenditure.

The bill, S.B. 850, was approved by the Republican-controlled Senate in May and passed by the Democratic House yesterday. Pennsylvania is in the 36th day of a budget impasse. The budget by law was supposed to be signed July 1.

The state Treasurer's Office was preparing the paychecks and "hopefully, Monday or Tuesday, some of those checks will arrive," the governor said.

The move by Rendell and House Democrats to pass the Republican-sponsored budget was an effort to help 77,000 state workers who have received partial or no paychecks.

And it is a negotiating gambit to build pressure on lawmakers to approve a budget that Rendell wants, with hundreds of millions of dollars more for public education and enough revenue to avoid a deficit next year. The deficit is $3.25 billion.

Counties, school districts, hospitals, local governments and nonprofit groups won't get state funding under the bill Rendell signs. "The pressure is going to build," Rendell told the Tribune-Review in an interview Saturday.

House Minority Whip Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, said it was wrong to pass a budget to pay state employees so that Rendell can use it as leverage to raise state taxes. If it were solely to pay state workers, "we could have done that in May," Turzai said.

Turzai called it budget "gimmickry" and a "joke on the citizens of Pennsylvania."

"It is not gimmickry. It is not hijacking. It is not a joke," said House Majority Whip Bill DeWeese, D-Greene County. "The dynamics are very, very plain. We want to pay our people."

House Democratic leaders on Monday said they took Rendell's proposal to raise the state income tax by 16 percent "off the table" and haven't considered it for a month.

"I've learned in 6 1/2 years to never say never," Rendell said. He said he is open to revenue options, including state sales tax exemptions and legalizing video poker.

"If the Legislature sent me a video poker bill, I would sign it even if (the revenue) is not for higher education," Rendell said. He proposed legalizing video poker in February and suggested using the tax revenue for grants to parents with children in state-owned universities. Senate Republicans oppose video poker in bars and clubs.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware County, refers to the plan as "slots at bars."

"I'm waiting for the Legislature," Rendell said. "The ball is in their court. I'm happy to review anything they give me. I gave them my idea. My idea (income tax) is best. I'm waiting to hear from them."