Rendell Questions If Legislature is Working Fulltime

After passing budget bills this weekend, both the Pennsylvania House and Senate adjourned until September.
Governor Ed Rendell wants lawmakers to return this summer to address transportation funding, but Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi has indicated that won’t happen.
Rendell says the General Assembly is shirking its responsibilities.

"Either they come back or they tell the people of the state of Pennsylvania that they don’t take their job seriously. We pay the legislature full time. When the pay scale for the legislature is justified, by members of the legislature and legislative leaders, the justification is they’re a full-time legislature, right?"

Rendell called a special session earlier this year, to address the funding gap that was created when federal officials rejected Pennsylvania’s application to toll I-80.
Lawmakers say they can deal with transportation in September and October.
The fall will be busy. Leaders have also vowed to pass a natural gas severance tax, and to create a new legislative fiscal office.