By Chris Comisac
Bureau Chief
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (Dec. 23) – Senate Republicans shrugged off the blame directed at them by the House Wednesday and still gave House Republicans an early Christmas gift, sending to Gov. Tom Wolf the $30.3 billion spending plan the House sent to the Senate on Dec. 8.
“This is the only way to get a budget to the governor’s desk that he can sign,” said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, prior to voting on the bill. “He can sign and get all the federal money in the budget to schools, he can get education money to the schools for the state, and we can continue to have this discussion – we’re not claiming that this is the end of the discussion, but we need to get something to the governor.”
But for Wolf that budget isn’t likely to be a welcomed gift beneath his Christmas tree, since it’s not the $30.8 billion in spending he’d prefer.
In a statement, Wolf, who did not indicate what he would do with the bill when he receives it, sounded like he wasn’t pleased with it and might be considering a veto of the plan.
The governor said the Senate “caved” to the House Republicans “and extreme interests” who he blamed for the inability to get the $30.8 billion budget framework agreement completed.
“It seems that the Republican legislature is intent on continuing the Harrisburg status quo and getting out of town to go on vacation instead of continuing the hard work to move Pennsylvania forward,” said Wolf in the statement. “Change is difficult, and clearly more so given this legislature, but we must continue our fight for historic education funding that will begin to restore the cuts from five years ago, and a budget that is balanced, paid for, and fixes our deficit.”
The Senate voted along party lines, 31-19, to revert House Bill 1460 to the prior version late Wednesday afternoon, and voted 33-17 to send the bill to Wolf.
The $30.3 billion spending plan is only slightly different from the one Wolf vetoed on June 30. However, since the non-preferred appropriations for Pennsylvania’s state-related universities have yet to be approved, the actual spending figure on HB1460 is closer to $29.7 billion.
The bill contains an extra $84 million, compared to the previously-vetoed House Bill 1192. That extra funding is sprinkled in what the House GOP, when they sent HB1460 to the Senate, called priority areas: such as $50 million for the Accountability Block Grant, $10 million for special education, $10.2 million for state-related universities and $14 million for community colleges.
Just like HB1192, HB1460’s basic and early education funding only increases by $100 million and $30 million, respectively.
Corman said extra revenues are not needed to balance the HB1460 spending plan due to the non-preferreds not being included. If they had been included, the $30.3 billion plan would require approximately $300 million in additional revenue.
When it passed the bill, the House GOP had envisioned raising the $300 million from a combination of taxes on tobacco products and various gaming sources, including new internet-based gambling, although most of the revenue for the current year comes from tobacco taxes. Senate Republicans and Democrats have said the gaming-related revenue sources are nonstarters in the chamber.
But Senate Democrats prior to Wednesday’s votes argued the plan also comes up a half-a-billion dollars short of the framework budget spending Wolf and legislative Democrats would prefer, and which Senate Republicans are willing to support with the inclusion of the pension reform plan defeated in the House this past weekend.
Corman, after session, said Wolf signing this budget does not preclude additional negotiations that could eventually produce that additional $500 million in spending, but he said that will be predicated on House Democrats giving up their demands that Senate Republican compromise more on pension reform. Producing a tax code bill that generates enough revenue to support the additional $500 million in spending has likewise been tied by the Senate GOP to them getting their pension reform plan to the governor.
Said Corman: “Pensions are still part of the discussion, we haven’t changed on that, and we’ll continue to negotiate that with the House and the governor – the governor has agreed to it, we just need to get the House Democrats to support it like the Senate Democrats did, so we can get enough votes to pass it. So it’s still very much in play.”
“We’ve been talking to them for six months about what we can support on pension reform,” said House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, about the Senate GOP earlier in the day. “They know it and we were told they didn’t need Democratic votes to pass it. If they want to work with us and talk with us and negotiate with us, we can come up with the plan that works.”
Dermody said the governor has compromised “and we have too,” so the Senate GOP should.
When told that later, Corman laughed and said: “Well, we’ve compromised quite a bit. I mean we’ve gone from Senate Bill 1, which was a DC [defined contribution] for current employees, moving forward, and all future employees, down to just future employees, and only half of their pension. So I think we’ve compromised significantly – but it’s still an historic piece of legislation that would move Pennsylvania to the front of the line on reforming pension systems.”
He said there are still a lot of payments that will have to be made into the pension systems for past underfunding, either by the state and school districts, or through inadequate pension systems investment performances. But the pension reform proposal at least tries to lessen the risk to state taxpayers going forward.
“At a minimum, what we can do is tell our constituents this will never happen again,” said Corman.
He acknowledged the current reform plan only half protects taxpayers, because only half of the benefit for future employees is a defined contribution plan; the other half remains a defined benefit plan that puts nearly all of the retirement benefit risk on taxpayers.
Corman said House Democrats continue to ask to expand that defined benefit portion, “which increases the risk to taxpayers,” and that’s something Senate Republicans can’t support.
House Democrats earlier in the day also complained about the decision by the House Republicans to adjourn the chamber, putting members on six-hour call, and not vote on a General Appropriations bill.
“We need to be here, we need everyone back here; this budget is ready, all the bills are lined up,” said Dermody. “We can do this. We showed we had the votes yesterday. We need to pass a budget for the people of Pennsylvania.”
However, when asked about “the votes yesterday,” and the way the General Appropriations bill got to the point where it could be considered, the leaders said they were still trying to understand how a few votes were cast by members who were not on the House floor to vote, commonly referred to a ghost voting.
“We’re worried about getting a budget done,” said House Minority Whip Mike Hanna, D-Clinton. “Now as far as those concerns, we’ll review those – that’s a matter of House rules – we’ll review those and make sure we’re in compliance with the House rules.”
When pressed further on the matter, Hanna returned to saying “it’s important to get a budget done.”
Given one of the pivotal procedural votes on Tuesday passed by one vote, the two votes cast by House Democrats (one was also cast by a House Republican) not physically in the state Capitol appear to have had a significant bearing on getting the version of SB1073 favored by House Democrats to a potential final vote.
Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, questioning the validity of the procedural vote outcome in which those ghost votes were cast.
“[House] Rule 64 dictates that ‘no member shall be permitted to vote and have his or her vote recorded on the roll unless present in the hall of the House during the roll call vote,’” wrote Metcalfe. “I request that Rule 64 be enforced and that the votes cast on this motion be set aside with all subsequent votes that followed as a result of this tainted vote.”
House Democrats weren’t the only ones complaining about the current budget situation Wednesday afternoon, with House GOP leaders a bit earlier putting most of the blame on Senate Republicans for not yet reaching a tax code bill agreement with the administration and other legislative parties. Those same GOP leaders, echoing House Democrats, suggested Senate Republicans give up their request pension reform be done before they agree to increase taxes.
However, with the passage of HB1460, there was a change in tone from House GOP leaders.
“We are convinced the public truly appreciates the work of the Senate to take up the House legislation we passed Dec. 8,” said Turzai and House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, in a joint statement. “By passing the House General Appropriations Bill, House Bill 1460, we now have a responsible budget that lives within our means while still amply providing for core state budget priorities.”
House Appropriations Committee Majority Chairman Bill Adolph, R-Delaware, added: “I am glad that the Senate in a bipartisan fashion realized how important it was to get a reasonable budget to the governor’s desk. The Senate’s action to revert back to the House-authored budget proposal represents our best opportunity to end this budget impasse.”
The Senate also is now on six-hour call. The House is expected to sign the bill Thursday morning, giving Wolf 10 days to decide what to do with it once he receives it.
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Staff Writer Kevin Zwick contributed to this report.
