House Will Vote on Senate Budget

House Democrats say they’re going to “give Republicans what they want” by calling the Senate Republicans’ budget to the floor for a vote.
Democrats emerged from a marathon closed-door meeting yesterday with the unexpected announcement. Party leaders say Senate Bill 850 is bad for Pennsylvania and will cause enormous pain, but we are going to pass it. Speaker Keith McCall says stubborn Republicans have backed Democrats into a corner. “That choice is pass 850 and put it on the Governor’s desk, which gets state employees paid. But there’s certainly going to be pain and suffering with that.” He went on to say, “The reality is there’s going to be a considerable amount of job loss—state jobs. Ancillary to that, you also have all of the social services. Children and youth services, drug and alcohol services. Mental health services.” The goal is to get the governor to veto the bill, which would force the Republicans to negotiate. The other option is for the governor to use his line item veto powers to bring the budget proposal into balance. That would require $1.7 billion in cuts. Democrats that if he does that the cuts would be so deep that Republicans will be forced to enter new talks to pass a supplemental spending plan that would include new taxes. Immediately after the Democrats’ event, Republicans gathered on the Rotunda steps to claim victory and issue their own warning. Minority Leader Sam Smith declared the proposed increase in the state’s personal income tax to be dead and then decried the Democrats’ intention of blocking any amendments to 850 that would bring it into balance. “If their intention is to put Senate Bill 850 on the governor’s desk as it is, without amendment, I believe that is equally as irresponsible as a personal income tax at this time.” The House Appropriations Committee will move to report the 27.3 billion dollar spending plan Monday.