As budget deadline looms, Rendell grows pessimistic
If a deal isn't close by 5 p.m. today, he said, thousands of Pa. workers will be furloughed.
HARRISBURG - Gov. Rendell said yesterday that he was growing less optimistic that a budget deal with legislative leaders could be struck in time to avert tomorrow's partial government shutdown.
"I am more pessimistic today than I was yesterday," Rendell said at an afternoon Capitol news conference.
Talks with top lawmakers the last few days had brought the sides "a little closer on some" issues "and not much closer on others," Rendell said. "And time is running short. I am disappointed."
Today, Pennsylvania enters its second week without a budget. If an accord isn't close by 5 p.m., Rendell said, he will be forced to go ahead with furloughing 25,000 state employees deemed "noncritical" to public health and safety.
As a result, an array of state government facilities would close. So would the state's five slots casinos - a move that would cost Pennsylvania $1.7 million a day in lost revenue.
The largest state workers' union and casino owners have failed in their efforts to have a state court intervene and avert the furloughs and shutdowns.
Top Republican lawmakers yesterday offered to continue talks with the administration while chiding the governor for his negotiating tactics.
House Minority Leader Sam Smith (R., Jefferson) accused Rendell of using state workers "as a manipulative tool in trying to force the legislature into making rash decisions."
"He now realizes that probably wasn't a good move, and he is going to backtrack from it," Smith predicted.
Just two weeks ago, few thought it would come to this.
Usually, bitter budget fights occur in lean years, when tax increases are needed to plug financial holes. But Pennsylvania ended last fiscal year with a $650 million surplus.
Instead, the battle hinges on several initiatives that Rendell insists the legislature approve before he signs off on a budget. Progress was being made on several of them, including increased mass transit and highway funding and a statewide ban on smoking in most public places.
But a deadlock remains on the governor's plan to impose a surcharge on electric bills - which would cost homeowners an average of $5.40 annually - to create a fund to invest in conservation and renewable and alternative energy. Senate Republicans call the idea a new tax, and insist they cannot consider such a complicated proposal in such little time.
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) said the Senate, which Republicans control, 29-21, isn't prepared to approve the initiatives "simply because the governor threatens to lay off employees."
Pileggi said he supported some of Rendell's energy ideas, but believed that the legislature should consider them only after a spending plan is in place and shouldn't be "crowbarred into a budget discussion."
"Our responsibility is to keep state government working, and to do that we need for a budget," he added.
House Speaker Dennis O'Brien (R., Phila.) said he remained optimistic that cooler heads would produce a compromise in time.
"As we approach the deadline, with everyone knowing what is at stake, I think we will find a way out of this," said O'Brien, who called himself "an eternal optimist."
Meanwhile, Commonwealth Court has put off rulings on three impasse-related measures.
A judge yesterday denied a request by Council 13 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to immediately block the furloughs. But the court set a hearing on the matter for 9 a.m. tomorrow - nine hours after the furloughs are to begin.
The union, which represents about 16,000 of those to be furloughed, is challenging the legality of dividing most state workers' jobs into "critical" and "noncritical" classifications.
About 52,000 "critical" workers, such as state police and welfare caseworkers, would remain on the job.
Also yesterday, the court set a hearing for 3 p.m. tomorrow on a request by Senate Republicans to force two Rendell cabinet secretaries to testify at a committee hearing about the pending casino closings.
Another judge had already delayed until tomorrow night a ruling on a request by casino owners for a temporary injunction to keep slots parlors open.