Override of Line Item Vetos Fails

Tempers flared at the state Capitol yesterday, as Senate Republicans tried to override some of Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s line-item vetoes in the bridge budget.
Republicans hold a 29-20 advantage in the Senate, and needed 33 votes to pass their override attempts with a two thirds majority.
Line by line, each measure failed by a 30-19 vote, since Northampton County Senator Lisa Boscola was the only Democrat to vote “yes.”

"I’m putting the people ahead of politics, because that’s the only thing I can do right now. The only way I can restore funding to these agencies that need them right now. For the people who didn’t deserve to be zero-funded, I have to vote today to override some of the governor’s line-item vetos."

Allegheny County Republican State Senator Jane Orie says the motions were a way to restore funding to organizations and programs that shouldn’t be caught up in the impasse.

"It’s incomprehensible, egregious, and quite frankly repugnant to see this governor, a former Philadelphia district attorney, veto funding for domestic violence programs and rape crisis programs when Senate Bill 850 and the governor’s revised budget proposal were identical levels of funding."

Senate Minority Leader Bob Mellow called the override votes a distraction.

"Not a resolve. Not a reaching, a handout, to try and work together to come up with the proper type of balance budget that meets the needs of Pennsylvania. The only thing this is meant to do, Mr. President, is to divide and be divisive."

Earlier in the day, Governor Rendell and Republican Senator Mike Brubaker of Lancaster County exchanged heated words in the rotunda. Brubaker explained he and the governor are both angry about the way budget negotiations have gone.
Meantime, House Republicans have introduced what they’re calling a compromise budget, which would provide 27.5 billion dollars worth of funding.