September 30th, 2009

All the budget update articles today say basically the same thing:  Legislators are still trudging along, and a budget is nowhere in sight, despite the “deal” that was struck two weeks ago.

Here are HealthPoint’s two picks for today:

From the Philadelphia Inquirer, a general update through the eyes of Rep. Bud George:

Camille “Bud” George, the plain-talking state representative from Clearfield County, has never been one to mince words.

Through closed doors yesterday, he could be heard scolding fellow House Democrats as they caucused at the Capitol for the first time on details of a tentative budget deal their leaders had agreed to 11 days earlier.

George stormed out of the meeting in the afternoon and let his colleagues have it again when a reporter asked him to recap what he had just said in private.

“Shame on these legislators who are shirking their responsibilities. Quit hiding. Quit playing games and pass the budget. We ought to do what is right and pass the budget now,” said George, 81, who has worked through more than 30 state budgets in a legislative career that began in the 1970s.

“. . . Both Republicans and Democrats have an obligation to get a budget done, and if they can’t make their point by a certain time, then they shouldn’t be here.”

Yesterday marked the 91st day Pennsylvania has operated without a completed budget – the only state in the nation still without one in place.

George said his colleagues should have had the courage to support Gov. Rendell’s come-and-gone proposal to fill the state’s billion-dollar budget hole by temporarily increasing the personal-income tax by 16 percent. And he chided them for not supporting another Rendell idea – an excise tax on smokeless tobacco and cigars. (The tentative budget deal does include a quarter-a-pack hike in the cigarette tax and a new tax on cigarillos.)

“Which of these legislators have ever bought their own cigars?” George said. “They don’t smoke them if someone doesn’t give them to them first.”

He has come to be known for delivering such part-reprimand, part-humor declarations during his 18 terms in the House. Colleagues call them “George-isms.” In a floor speech years ago, he said: “I wouldn’t slam an outhouse door as hard as they slam people in this General Assembly.”

Read the rest here.

And the Patriot-News highlights the few legislators that are refusing their paychecks until a budget is passed:

Thursday will mark the fourth missed monthly payday for several midstate lawmakers who won’t accept a paycheck until the state budget is done.

Among those on a pay fast are: Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland County; and Reps. Glen Grell, R-Hampden Township; Sheryl Delozier, R-Lower Allen Township; RoseMarie Swanger, R-North Lebanon Township; Mauree Gingrich, R-Cleona; and Rob Kauffman, R-Chambersburg.

Lawmakers’ paychecks stopped on July 1 until the “bridge” budget was passed in August and restored the pay of state workers. At that point or shortly thereafter, the legislative caucuses began paying their members.

But several dozen House members, mostly Republicans, have refused to accept their pay.

In the Senate, the chief clerk’s office said Vance was the only one to refuse her pay.

Several, including Delozier, Helm, Grell, Gingrich and Swanger, indicated at the time that it was their intent to hold off taking a paycheck until the budget was finalized.

Rank-and-file lawmakers are paid $78,312 annually, or $6,526 a month before taxes. Legislative leaders make more.

Rep. Mark Keller, R-New Bloomfield, initially put off taking a paycheck, but indicated he hit a point after Labor Day where he needed the income. Rep. John Payne, R-Hershey, put off taking his paycheck until earlier this month. He said he thought it would have been unconscionable to accept a paycheck when state workers weren’t getting paid.

“Once they were paid, I felt a little more comfortable,” Payne said.

Read about more legislators at the Patriot.