Pa.+Budget+Unfolds+Amid+Drilling,+Higher+Ed+Debate

= By MARC LEVY and MARK SCOLFORO = =// Published by the Associated Press //= =// 6/27/11 //= = = = = = = =HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The state budget debate picked up steam in Harrisburg on Monday as the Republican majority took the wraps off a $27.15 billion spending plan while minority [|Democrats] stalled aid to some of the state's largest universities in protest over deep cuts pushed by the GOP.= =Top Republican lawmakers also began moving to try to head off the potential that rank-and-file unrest would derail the budget over Republican Gov. [|Tom Corbett]'s resistance to slapping a levy on the state's booming natural gas drilling industry.= =The main budget bill was approved on a party line vote by the [|Senate Appropriations Committee] and scheduled for a Tuesday floor vote as Republicans continued their drive to complete a budget on time and before the new fiscal year begins for the first time in nine years. Democrats, who first saw the budget bill Monday after having been excluded from budget negotiations, sought unsuccessfully in the committee to add more money for public schools, safety-net services and more. = =The spending package was agreed to by Corbett. It would cut spending by about 3 percent, thanks largely to more than $1.1 billion in cuts in aid to public schools and 18 state-supported universities, as Corbett insists on cuts in state government and no tax increases to balance what he calls a multibillion-dollar deficit.= =Republicans contend they are left with little choice but to cut spending as billions of dollars in temporary federal budget aid dry up and state tax collections still recover from the recession.= ="It matches our revenues with our expenditures. You have to do that," Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman [|Jake Corman] said after the party line committee vote. "It was sort of a fantasy that we were funding operating costs out of money that was short term. That money's gone so we had to transition toward a more fiscally responsible budget."= = The budget also would lower business taxes and keep hundreds of millions of dollars in reserve — elements targeted by Democrats who decried cuts in funding for education, health care, job training and services for the poor. = ="There's nothing about this so far that we like," said Sen. [|Vincent Hughes], D-Philadelphia.= =The plan would ease cuts proposed by Corbett in aid to hospitals that care for the poor and community health care programs. But it would cut aid for services such as food pantries, adult shelters and child welfare. The Philadelphia-based [|Community Legal Services], which advocates for the poor, called cuts to subsidized child care and other welfare-to-work programs "penny wise and pound foolish."= = = =The 2011-12 fiscal year begins Friday, and Republicans have made the passage of a budget by the start of the fiscal year a top priority after partisan battles with Corbett's predecessor, Democratic Gov. [|Ed Rendell], resulted in late budgets for eight years. Passing a budget could require dozens of committee and floor votes in the House and Senate on bills that aren't finished being written yet. = = = =However, in both the House and Senate, minority Democrats held up funding legislation for Pitt, Temple, [|the University of Pennsylvania]'s veterinary school and Penn State. Those funding bills required a two-thirds majority voting yes — demanding at least some minority party support — and [|House Democrats] urged voting them down to pressure Republicans to ease the cuts using money from much-better-than-expected tax collections in recent months.= = = ="A no vote tonight means that we can do better; a no vote tonight means that we must do better for the students and their families," Rep. [|Phyllis Mundy], D-Luzerne, said during floor debate.= = = =Republicans said the state's looming financial demands — including a case at the state [|Supreme Court] that could force the state to repay $800 million to a state-run fund that helps physicians pay medical malpractice insurance premiums — compelled them to save the estimated $650 million surplus instead of spending it.= = = = = ="I wish it were true that Pennsylvania had some sort of a surplus, but it doesn't," said Rep. [|John Maher], R-Allegheny. "It only has a surplus in the way that someone who's maxed out on their credit cards, has borrowed for their car, has no money in their bank account and finds 10 bucks in the pocket of their jeans coming out of the dryer thinks that they have a surplus."= =A fifth bill, for [|Lincoln University]'s state subsidy, passed the House narrowly but was defeated in the Senate.= =The Legislature was expected to remain in session all week to finish the budget before lawmakers take their traditional two-month summer break from Harrisburg, but it was unclear whether the House would reconsider those votes before the fall.= =Senate President Pro Tempore [|Joe Scarnati], R-Jefferson, warned that the schools will have difficulty setting tuition rates if their funding level is not secured with passage of the budget, and he predicted that public opinion will favor Republicans after they rejected Corbett's original budget proposal to slash aid to the schools by more than 50 percent.= ="I don't think Pennsylvanians are at all convinced that going from a 54 percent cut to a 19 percent cut is a negative," Scarnati said. "We've done as well as we can do working in the parameters that we're working in. ... I believe that the ramifications of a late budget will be strictly on (Democrats') shoulders."= =One bill that traditionally must pass as part of the budget is a fiscal code bill that guides how some state funds must be spent. However, Democrats and some Republicans may try to amend the bill with a provision to impose a tax or fee on the state's booming natural gas drilling industry, a move [|Corbett and House] Republican leaders oppose.= =As a result, [|House Republicans] on Monday said they will hold a floor vote on a separate bill to impose a Marcellus Shale gas fee later this week, although House Majority Whip Stan Saylor, R-York, said he did not know what the bill would look like.= =Corbett has said he prefers to wait to consider a Marcellus Shale gas levy until after his task force makes a recommendation, expected next month. In the meantime, he has not said whether he would support any of the various proposals for a drilling tax or fee that are simmering in the Legislature= =Scarnati has warned for months that the budget would have trouble passing without rank-and-file lawmakers forcing a vote on a Marcellus Shale levy.= =The gas riches of the vast Marcellus Shale — which underlies Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and part of Ohio — have attracted a rush of drillers to the region in the last couple of years. In Pennsylvania, the drilling frenzy is credited with enriching landowners and pumping new life into trucking companies, short-line railroads, quarries and steel-pipe makers as well as the restaurants and hotels hosting out-of-state drilling crews.= = Read more: [] = = = = = = = = = = = =News= =home=