March 20th, 2009

Traditionally, Gov. Rendell and the Senate and House R’s have found no shortage of items to disagree over.  This week has turned out to be - of course - no different.

The week began with the House and Senate Republican Leaders sending letters to Rendell asking to keep them in the loop, or involved with exactly how the stimulus dollars are spent.  The Senate Leaders stressed that if Rendell does not make his stimulus money plans known quickly, it’s unlikely the budget deadline will be met.

The next day, Budget Secretary Mary Soderberg announced that she will be coming out with a new budget document, outlining how the stimulus dollars will be worked into the general fund.  The Gov, however, will not be re-working the proposal as asked.

Later in the week, things heated up with third ranking Republican in the House Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) and Rendell.  Turzai, known as a true fiscal conservative, proposed a plan to cut programs from the Dept. of Communtiy and Economic Development’s budget to save the state $170 million, at the same time cutting income tax from $3.07   to $2.99. Rendell called him crazy for wanting to cut taxes, Turzai then called Rendell crazy, annndd you get the picture…

Yesterday it was announced that Rendell hired a part-time publicist for 100,000 a year to promote the stimulus plan… the same day he asked Sunoco in a news conference not to cut jobs… and shortly after he threatened furloughs of state union workers. 

Rep. Glen Grell (R- Cumberland), c0-chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee’s Government Reform Tax Force, said he sees a contradiction between Rendell ordering a state level hiring freeze last year, and then continuing to hire for new positions over the next few months. 

Grell said in a release, ““It was hard to believe that existing DCNR employees couldn’t do Dan Surra’s job, and it’s just as hard to accept that the governor’s existing public relations staff can’t do this stimulus outreach.”  This morning, the Patriot-News reported that state-workers were also angry that Rendell “seems to take care of his own”.

The Gov’s office responded that their press office is already working at top speed, and that the publicist is a necessary position to make counties and municipalities aware of the stimulus money that they are eligible to recieve.

Senate and House will both be returning next week for session…stay tuned to see what they argue over next.