Pa.+Senate+passes+27.15+billion+budget+and+sends+it+to+the+state+House+for+consideration

=By Jan Murphy= =//Published in the Patriot News//= =//6/28/11//= = = = = =The Senate voted 30-20, along party lines, to approve a $27.15 billion [|budget]for 2011-12 that calls for no tax increase and softens many of the cuts that Gov. [|Tom Corbett] included in his budget proposal, particularly in the area of the education and hospitals.= =It now goes to the state House for consideration.= =Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware County, called it "fiscally responsible, sustainable budget." He said admittedly, it contains some unpopular cuts but it resets state government spending to a level it can afford.= =But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Vince Hughes, D-Philadelphia, called it a trick on Pennsylvanians because it includes deeper cuts than are necessary given the anticipated $700 million revenue surplus. "The fact is there are dollars to be spent and invested in issues people care most about," he said.= =Like it or leave it, Senate Appropriations Committee Jake Corman, R-Centre County, said the Senate's passage followed on Wednesday or Thursday by an anticipated passage in the House puts it on track to land on the governor's desk before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year, a feat not accomplished during former Gov. Ed Rendell's administration.= ="We will have an appropriations plan in place on time and I think that is a nice change from where we've been over the last eight years," Corman said.= = = =News= =home=