Pocono News Section

Rally Held as State Marks 100 Days Without Budget

Rally Held as State Marks 100 Days Without Budget - Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 6:11PM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Thursday, Oct 8, 2009 @ 06:11pm EDT
HARRISBURG, DAUPHIN COUNTY - Pennsylvania has hit an embarrassing milestone. It has now been 100 days since a state budget was supposed to be passed.

Local lawmakers expect the State Senate to pass a spending plan within the next two days. The State House of Representatives passed the deal Wednesday night. That means it could be ready for the governor by the weekend.

Groups who are frustrated held a rally at the State Capitol to show their anger and frustration Thursday. They call any deal too little too late. Food pantries, daycares and school districts have all been left in limbo.

"Really what it has been, is a man-made Katrina, in a lot of ways. I think it's very similiar to that disaster, but this one was man-made," Tony Ross from the United Way of Pennsylvania said.

Many say the milestone is shameful.

"It has to be marked because it is sad. It's 100 days and its 100 days too many," Joseph Quattrocchi with the Pennsylvania Hunger Action Center said.

Besides highlighting the problems that the late state budget has caused, people at Thursday's rally were also focused on the future. They want to make sure something like this never happens again.

"I think it's very frustrating for us because it's not just the 100 days that we've been dealing with it. We've been dealing with it for at least 100 days before that," state representative Garth Everett of Lycoming County said.

Everett says he expects a vote to come in the state senate after staffers go over the plan line-item by line-item. He also doesn't seem worried about public back-lash at the polls.

"I think in selected areas there may be some blow back for this, some reaction to it. I think you'll see that in areas where we were going to be in tight races anyway," Everett said.

Representative Everett says this year's budget was especially difficult because the state had a $3.2 billion dollar revenue shortfall.