Legislative+leaders+say+state+budget+deal+at+hand

=By Tracie Mauriello and Laura Olson= =//Published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette//= =//6/23/11//= = = = = = = =HARRISBURG -- The governor and legislative leaders have settled on a $27.15 billion budget framework, but lawmakers are saying little about its particulars.= ="There's an agreement in principle with lots of details still being worked out," said Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware.= =He declined to identify what those details are. Some House members said they were beginning to be briefed on the proposal.= =Kevin Harley, Gov. Tom Corbett's spokesman, also declined to comment.= = What is clear is that the budget will include cuts to all levels of education, though less than what the governor proposed in March. = =The current state budget is $28 billion.= =Democrats complained throughout the day that they had been excluded from discussions.= =Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa of Forest Hills and Vince Hughes of Philadelphia, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, decried the anticipated education cuts. They said those cuts could be softened by dipping into a surplus that they say has now grown to $675 million.= =Republicans have been reluctant to build a budget around a surplus that might not be there in future years.= =Mr. Costa, though, said the economy is recovering and that next year's revenue could be even higher. He said some of the surplus could be kept in reserve but that it's irresponsible to cut education and other necessary programs when there's money left over.= ="Nothing we ever talked about is spending all of the surplus," he told reporters this afternoon. "Nothing we ever proposed ... is exorbitant."= =Mr. Pileggi has said that a handshake agreement had to be reached by today in order to get a budget bill through both legislative chambers by June 30, the last day of the fiscal year.= =Mr. Corbett and other state leaders said they expect to meet that deadline, something the Legislature was unable to do during the eight-year tenure of former Gov. Ed Rendell.= =But Mr. Corbett, a Republican, has one thing his predecessor never did: a House and Senate both under the control of his own party.= ="We've made substantial progress," Mr. Corbett said this afternoon. "We're working on details."= =The House and Senate are expected to reconvene Sunday afternoon.= =More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.= =Read more: [] =

= = =News= =home=