Pa. faces $1.3 billion shortfall, senator warns
HARRISBURG The Republican chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee is projecting that the state will be facing a whopping $1.3 billion shortfall by the end of this fiscal year.
HARRISBURG The Republican chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee is projecting that the state will be facing a whopping $1.3 billion shortfall by the end of this fiscal year.
Sen. Jake Corman (R., Centre) said this morning that April revenue collections - typically the strongest of the year - fell well below estimates.
"We have no reason to believe that anything will happen in May or June that will change that," he added.
"This is the budget reality here," Corman told reporters at a morning news conference. "Let's begin putting together a budget that reflects that new reality."
He said Senate Republicans will be asking Gov. Rendell to submit a new budget that reflects lower-than-expected revenues.
The governor has scheduled a 1 p.m. news conference in the Capitol to discuss the shortfall.
In February, Rendell unveiled a $29 billion spending plan for fiscal year 2010-2011 that calls for hundreds of millions in new education spending; proposes reducing the overall sales-tax rate but expand the items and services it covers; and proposes imposing new taxes on tobacco products and natural gas extraction to help respond to the spike in public-employee pension costs in 2011.