Pocono News Section

Governor Rejects Budget Agreement

Governor Rejects Budget Agreement - Friday, September 11, 2009 at 5:46PM EST

Reported by: Kyla Campbell
Friday, Sep 11, 2009 @ 05:46pm EDT

HARRISBURG -- Friday morning, lawmakers said they came up with a budget that meets two main requests made by the governor. First, they said it includes adequate funding for education and health care. Second, it created enough recurring revenue. But Governor Ed Rendell fired back, saying the plan doesn't come close to what's needed.

State lawmakers announced shortly after 11am they reached a tentative agreement that totaled $27.945 billion for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Legislators believed Governor Rendell would approve.

"He asked for $300 million for education, that was his primary ask," said Rep. Keith McCall (D-Carbon), Speaker of the House. "He asked for at least $1.1 billion in recurring revenues, and that is in this request."

"We believe this is a final agreement, that the spending figure of $27.945 billion will stay intact," added Sen. Bob Mellow (D-Lackawanna), Minority Leader.

But at four o'clock in the afternoon, Rendell let them know where he stands.

"I've been telling them for two weeks that it has to meet two standards," said Rendell. "One, that there are no further cuts in education and health care because we've already made millions in cuts. And two, that is has to balance this year's budget and next year's budget. They failed on both counts. I just couldn't sign it. Or else we'd be back here next year banging our heads together and doing the same thing."