Rendell: More Cuts to be Detailed Soon

Governor Ed Rendell is billing his upcoming round of budget cuts as a compromise, but Republicans remain skeptical. At the same time the governor has called the cuts proposed by Senate Republicans as irresponsible and catastrophic. He does however agree with GOP lawmakers on the need for budget reductions. He’s promising to announce 400 to 500 million dollars of additional cuts to his original $29 billion budget in the coming days, and says he’s finalized the specific line items he’d trim. He says, “We went over the Republican budget line by line, out of respect for them and out of the fact that I agree with them that more cuts need to be made. And in many instances we left the cuts where they were. In some instances we cut, but we didn’t cut as much as they recommended. And in a few instances we actually cut more than they recommended, and in some instances we didn’t cut at all.” House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin says if Rendell has made up his mind, he should share his ideas with the public. He says the Rendell Administration would rather keep blasting the Senate Republican plans as part of a PR effort aimed at rallying support for a tax increase.