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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2009
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Budget Op-Ed – Fiscal Responsibility in Tough Times

Recently the Senate of Pennsylvania adopted Senate Bill 850, by a partisan vote of 30 – 20.  The bill proposes a fiscally conservative $27.3 billion spending package  -- reflecting the type of budget that I believe most Pennsylvanians support in these tough economic and financial times.

When I first wrote about the deficit in state revenues back in December we were anticipating a shortfall of up to $2 billion.  The picture has become more dire, and we now face a projected $3 billion deficit.  As a result, we have done what most businesses and families have to do: prioritizing what needs to funded, showing fiscal restraint, balancing our budget and only proposing to spend the revenues and federal stabilization funds that we are going to receive.  Our proposed budget includes cuts in spending, and most importantly no new taxes.

California voters made it clear on election day that they did not want increased spending.  They rejected several proposals that would have allowed tax increases to continue and would have allowed borrowing against the state's lottery fund.  It is clear that taxpayers across the nation, including those in Pennsylvania -- are expecting their state governments to live within their means and to not increase taxes.

Senate Bill 850 is a fiscally responsible budget that makes cuts across a wide range of programs.  It uses federal stabilization dollars to fill shortfalls in state revenues, instead of expanding current state programs or creating new programs.  The program cuts that have been proposed were not made lightly, are painful, and include programs that I have personally championed in the past.

This proposal has been criticized for not increasing education spending as proposed by the administration.  In actuality, the school districts of the fortieth Senatorial District will receive an increase in total funding, state and federal, between 5% and 14.8%.

What Senate Bill 850 does is prepare Pennsylvania to be on stable ground as the economy hopefully recovers over the next 2 years and federal assistance ceases.  Expanding spending at a time when most, if not all, projected revenue estimates for future years are pessimistic would be irresponsible.  It is ironic that administration is staging press conferences and issuing press releases from numerous department secretaries regarding the cuts that will occur under Senate Bill 850.  This seems to go against the Governor's own "no whining" directive that he issued when he proposed his original budget.

It has been clear all along that broad based tax increases should not and would not be considered, especially at a time when families and businesses are struggling to make ends meet.

At the end of the day we must put our house in order and not place additional burdens on the many hard working men and women of Pennsylvania.