02/18/2010
The 2009-10 fiscal year began on July 1, 2009. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania did not have a budget for the fiscal year until October 2009. That delay meant thousands of Pennsylvanians who rely on programs which are funded through the state budget were unable to get the services they need.
01/26/2010
In recent years, there has been a great deal of talk from lawmakers in Harrisburg about this being a “new era of reform” in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, after the television cameras were turned off and the newspaper stories were written, those promises were, for the most part, never kept.
12/18/2009
When the last fiscal year ended on June 30, Pennsylvania found itself with a budget deficit of more than $3 billion. It is only December, and already the revenue projections for the current fiscal year are more than $217 million below estimates. Unfortunately, our current economic troubles pale in comparison to the problems we will face in 2012-13 if something is not done to address the looming crisis in our public employee pension systems.
11/01/2009
Nearly everyone agrees that our nation’s health care system is in need of reforms that will increase access for the uninsured and reduce costs for everyone. But, there is a great deal of disagreement about how to get there.
10/01/2009
After all of the posturing and political rhetoric has quieted, the recently concluded state budget impasse can be boiled down to a disagreement between two basic philosophies of government spending. One holds that government spending can increase without regard to the revenue on hand and taxes can be raised to make up the difference. The other philosophy holds that government must live within its means and all spending decisions should be based on the amount of money available, not on the assumption that taxes can be raised to generate the money we would like to spend.
09/01/2009
When I began writing this monthly column in January, I did not expect to spend so much time discussing the state budget. As chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, I had intended to use the column to discuss the House Republican legislative agenda on a range of important issues including health care, education and energy.
08/01/2009
Earlier this month, at the request of the governor, the House approved Senate Bill 850, the Senate’s budget plan for the new fiscal year. The governor asked that the bill be sent to him so that state workers, who have been working without pay for several weeks, could be paid. Unfortunately the governor signed the bill only after vetoing large parts of it.
07/01/2009
On July 1, Pennsylvania began its seventh consecutive fiscal year without a budget in place. The Senate passed a budget plan in May. House Republicans have made numerous attempts to bring a spending plan to the House floor so that negotiations on a final budget plan can begin, but, House Democrats have refused to allow any budget debate to take place. Instead, they and Gov. Ed Rendell have spent a great deal of time distorting the facts about the Republican plan in an effort to scare Pennsylvanians into accepting a tax increase.
06/01/2009
Pennsylvania is facing a health care crisis. While 92 percent of our residents have health insurance, there are still too many people who are uninsured. The problem is made worse in this difficult economic time as more and more people are losing their jobs and, as a result, losing their health insurance.
05/01/2009
Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Senate passed Senate Bill 850, its state budget plan for fiscal year 2009-10. The plan reflects the fact that Pennsylvania is facing a $3 billion budget shortfall and some very difficult decisions will have to be made if we are going to weather this crisis without new and increased taxes on Pennsylvania’s families and businesses.
04/01/2009
Pennsylvania is set to receive billions of dollars in stimulus funds from the federal government as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This will be the largest influx of federal stimulus money in Pennsylvania history, and as lawmakers, we have an obligation to see that these funds are used responsibly and with the greatest possible economic benefit to the people of Pennsylvania.
03/01/2009
On March 4th, 2009, the Rendell administration announced a new direction for an old proposal – mandating Graduation Competency Assessments on local school districts. These Graduation Competency Assessments (GCAs) are still being advocated in Pennsylvania, but it has been given a new name – “Keystone Exams.”
02/01/2009
“We have $2.3 billion in red ink this year and there’s more to come next year. This is something no Band-Aid can fix.” (Gov. Ed Rendell, Wilkes Barre Times Leader, Jan. 29, 2009)
01/01/2009
Pennsylvania is facing a serious budget crisis. Earlier this month, Gov. Ed Rendell predicted that the budget shortfall, which had been estimated at $1.6 billion, is likely to be $100 million deeper. Others are predicting that the shortfall could be more than $2 billion.