May 28th, 2009

Here’s a big surprise: with just 34 days left until the June 30 budget deadline the GOP Senate and the Governor and House Democrats are still $1.7 billion apart on their budget plans, and continued publicly sniping at each other yesterday.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

The governor declined to give details about the additional spending cuts he will propose next week, but said they would balance the budget without requiring an increase in the personal income tax or other major levies.

“Right now, I don’t think so,” he said, when asked if an income tax increase was possible. But he agreed state revenues continue to fall short of expectations.

Mr. Rendell repeated his call for a tax on smokeless tobacco products and cigars, saying Pennsylvania is the only state without such a levy.

“It would be crazy not to tax that. The public supports it,” he said. He also wants to increase the state’s cigarette tax by 10 cents per pack.

***

Meanwhile, the administration and Republicans clashed yesterday on the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, which Mr. Rendell wants to increase by $8 million next year, but Republicans want to keep at this year’s level.

There are now 193,000 children enrolled, but Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario fears that number could decrease by 12,000, through attrition, without additional funding; when youths turn 18 they must leave the program. Failure to provide additional state aid could also cost the state nearly $17 million in federal CHIP aid, he said, and could cause a waiting list to form for the first time in years.

“When you think about the payoff of children getting the coverage they need early in life and succeeding, and all the benefits that gives to society, this is not one of the programs that ought to be a target for the budget-cutting process,” he said.

Senate Republicans defended their proposal to keep CHIP at its 2008-09 level. Senate GOP spokesman Erik Arneson said that if a waiting list develops, a supplemental budget bill could be passed.