Republicans unable to prepare realistic Pennsylvania budget
As the state this week teetered toward the start of another fiscal year without a budget, I spent a day at the state capitol building in Harrisburg.
Harrisburg, PA, capitol building
I came away with the impression a budget may be months away.
There was no evidence that the Republican-controlled legislature would produce a budget that Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf would sign any time soon.
What was in evidence were hundreds of protesters, yelling about education cuts.
Meanwhile, in the legislative chambers, hundreds of majority Republicans stood around making excuses about what they were doing, and not doing.
The protests began in the morning, with a sedate rally organized by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. The president of the group, Jerry Jordan, complained about the budget proposed by the Republicans.
The Republicans say their proposed budget gives a $100 million increase to basic education funding, and an additional $20 million to special education.
But education groups, and Democrats, counter that this $120 million is offset by a GOP plan to shift $87 million in Social Security payments, and $25 million in pension burdens — totaling $112 million in new liabilities — to school districts, wiping out all but $8 million in increased funding to the districts.
What’s really going on?
Though they won’t say it, many Republicans simply don’t want public schools, and want to starve them out. But they know that this is a losing position with the public at the polls.
So the Republicans are pretending to give $120 million to the districts, when they’re only giving peanuts. Which, in turn, is causing the protests.
The sedate, well-spoken, and polite Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ press conference gave way, in the afternoon, to a much more vocal rally in the rotunda, organized by groups including the Philadelphia chapter of the Pennsylvania Social Services Union, or SEIU; the “Pennsylvania Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools;” and a group wearing T-shirts that read, “I’m fasting for a moral budget.” The suspicion is they might be fasting for a long time.
“It’s Corbett’s fifth budget – a bill that has inspired Pennsylvanians to occupy the capitol to ensure we get fair funding,” SEIU the next day announced on facebook. The labor group is helping to set up a tent city on the steps of the capitol.
Having filled the capitol rotunda steps with placard-bearing protestors, the angry group then took off down the hall to the General Assembly wing. Protestors lined the hallway outside of GOP speaker Mike Turzai’s office. For more than an hour they filled the hallway and shouted for the Republicans to “Tax shale and fund our schools.”
And this is just getting going, and could go on for months.
Between rallies I made the rounds of the capitol, and ventured into galleries of both legislative chambers to see what was going on as the budget deadline neared.
The senate chamber was almost empty, save for leaders from both parties and a few sidemen. No one seemed to be in any hurry to do anything, except take recesses.
Democratic minority leader Sen. Jay Costa (Allegheny) told the near-empty chamber, “If there was anything clear that all of us in this room heard over the course of last year in that election, is that people of Pennsylvania want us to make an investment in education, and want us to look to the Marcellus shale community to help. We recognize they may have some level of challenge, but they’re like folks with two loaves of bread under their arms. On one hand they say, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t pay another penny,’ but on the other hand when they report to their shareholders and other folks and investors, they say, ‘We’ve experienced record profits, and the future is bright.”
Sen. Costa then complained about the miserly $8 million in real funding the Republicans want to give public schools as a supposed increase.
Whereupon Republican state Sen. Pat Brown (Lehigh), took the microphone to say the GOP majority is also proposing to pay $573 million in teacher pension funds this year, and that should be added into the $8 million. Of course, elementary school kids aren’t going to see any of that pension money.
The wrangling, inaction, and bald-faced lies went on as the budget deadline ticked on, all but ensuring, at some point in the weeks or months ahead, a government shutdown.
In the senate chamber, before a recess, a few resolutions unrelated to the budget were offered.
In the lackadaisical General Assembly it was more of the same. I no sooner sat down in the galley after lunch when the speaker announced a recess “until 3:15.” At the appointed time, the recess was extended to 3:45pm.
When the state reps at last began to drift back in, looking none-to-concerned or hurried about concocting a budget that the governor would sign, a string of resolutions unrelated to the budget were offered.
What’s the bigger picture, nationwide? And what are some proposed solutions?
In 2010, the National Conference of State Legislatures complained that, “Since 2002, at least 19 states have started one or more new fiscal years without a final budget.” That number surely has gotten worse.
A history of late budgets make this the new normal, the group points out.
This obviously is part of what’s happening in Pennsylvania, where budget stalemates and government shut downs are becoming increasingly commonplace, if not expected.
“There are various consequences associated with late budgets,” says the National Conference of State Legislatures. “Extending the regular legislative session or calling a special session increases operational costs. Furloughs of state employees result in lost wages. Pennsylvania’s one-day furlough of nearly 24,000 state employees in FY 2008 caused an estimated $3.5 million in lost wages. That represents a decrease in spending in the state’s economy and foregone income tax collections on those wages. States also may be subject to legal actions from employees because of lost compensation.”
Consistent late budgets also hurt a state’s bond rating and borrowing costs, as we see in Pennsylvania.
“On top of the measurable, direct costs, states also pay indeterminable consequences in terms of a decline in public confidence in elected officials and damage to the state’s image,” says the Conference of State Legislatures.
In 2014, the group State Budget Solutions estimated an accumulated $5.1 trillion in state debt nationwide, with unfunded pension liabilities a big part of the problem, as in Pennsylvania.
Gimmicks include delaying payments “until next year,” and selling state assets, which only produce a one-time influx of cash. This is what we see with the GOP proposal to sell Pennsylvania’s liquor system.
What are some solutions?
The National Conference of State Legislatures reports:
“Some states have rules or provisions to encourage timeliness. In Illinois, a majority vote in each house is required to pass the budget until June 1. After that date, the required vote increases to a three-fifths majority…. In Maryland, the state constitution requires that the budget be enacted by the 83rd day of the 90-day legislative session. After the 83rd day the only bill the legislature may consider is the budget.”
In other words, if they can’t fulfill their obligations to pass a timely budget, legislators should not be allowed to stand in front of TV cameras and offer other legislation, including resolutions, as I saw in both Pennsylvania chambers this week.
