John Baer: 'Crazy' legislators put WAM-my on budget try

I HESITATE TO write this column, for three reasons: I'm running out of adjectives to describe how bad our Legislature is; it gives Gov. Ed the umpteenth chance to say how close we are to passing a now 99-day-late budget; and, by the time I tell you what's happening, something else will have happened to change it.

Still, like watching a multivehicle pile-up with injuries along Roosevelt Boulevard, I can't look away and not talk about it.

So. It appears that a third "deal" is crashing over issues such as legislative process and the use of discretionary funds called WAMs (walking-around money) totaling $12 million, though, of course, there's disagreement over whether they're really WAMs or not.

This follows disagreements over $100 million in WAMs, over increasing the personal-income tax and over taxing cigars and smokeless tobacco, small games of chance, the performing arts, and the extraction of natural gas, none of which is likely to happen.

It all gets somewhat taxing.

Now they're fighting over $12 million out of $28 billion, which may or may not be WAMS, for violence reduction and neighborhood safety programs, health-care clinics, acute-care hospitals and more.

House Democrats say that they won't vote for WAMs.

They're also fighting over what Senate Republicans say is a House move to restore $11 million in House legislative accounts, which the House uses to run its operations.

And they've been fighting over whether to use a House/Senate conference committee or the regular, more-circuitous legislative process and whether one takes longer or is preferable to the other.

This at a time most sensate beings with minimal reasoning abilities might think JUST PASS THE DAMN THING ALREADY.

It's a process that makes Billy Bob Thornton's "Sling Blade" seem a study in intellectualism. I reckon.

Even the normally same-page Philly delegation is at odds. All seven Philly senators voted for a budget bill approved in the Senate yesterday by a bipartisan 43-6 vote. senators LeAnna Washington and Mike Stack even issued news releases praising its passage. But Philly Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans sent a letter to Gov. Ed saying that the spending level "is not acceptable."

A Philly Democratic operative suggests: "Our state would be better served in Harrisburg if we randomly kidnapped people off the sidewalks of Pennsylvania and made them lawmakers."

A journalistic colleague says a Republican insider reminds him that those running the show "are the people who won elections" - a nice perspective on state politics.

So we crawl toward another possible extension of an impasse that's putting people in need and social services at further risk every day while, I'm told, behind-the-scenes "shuttle diplomacy" continues.

The Guv had a mansion breakfast meeting yesterday with legislative leaders, supposedly to iron out differences and avoid "100 days without a budget" headlines tomorrow.

Post-breakfast action suggests indigestion rather than resolution. Perhaps there was some bad scrapple?

Once the GOP Senate passed its budget, the Democratic House said that it would pass an amended version after a Rules Committee meeting scheduled for 2 p.m., then 4 p.m., then 6 p.m., then back to 4:30 p.m., then canceled. Then it was announced there'd be no votes.

Rendell press secretary Gary Tuma says, "Negotiations continue . . . we remain close."

I think they all remain crazy.

At a Monday night news conference, Rendell was asked if he was offering group therapy. He said, with a smile, "I'm not sure I'd be the best person to lead a group-therapy session."

It's one of the few things said in the Capitol lately that's clearly true and that makes good sense.*

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