Weekly Budget Blitz: 7/20 -7/24

MON: Senate takes carving knife to House budget;

TUES: House rejects Senate amended budget;

WED: informal talks begin between all sides;

NEXT MON: bi-cameral conference committee will be chosen and will start negotiating

No budget, record low approval rates

The budget impasse is clearly impacting the Governor’s approval rates: A Quinnipiac Poll released yesterday shows that a record 53% of voters in Pennsylvania disapprove with the job he’s doing as governor. All over the state, except for Philadelphia, writes John Baer of the Philadelphia Daily News, his approval ratings are lower than ever.

House Dems vote their own budget proposal to the floor

Yesterday evening House Dems voted their $29.1 billion budget proposal out of committee. Their proposal calls for $400 million more in spending than Rendell’s and effectively de-funds higher education.

Ding, Dong the income tax increase is dead…

As House Democrats couldn’t garner enough votes to pass Rendell’s tax increase they have decided to bring the Senate’s budget bill they despise to a vote. They say the cuts will be “draconian” and hope for a public outcry, which will force Republicans to further negotiate.

Budget Round-up 7/1

After 5 hours of leaders and the Gov. going line-by-line through the state budget last night a deal was still not struck. State employees brace for a long impasse by saving money and looking into loans.

Like him or not, Rendell can never be called a ‘lame duck’

Although Gov. Rendell is nearing the end of his second term he is still a powerful leader armed with a knack for policy, politics, and public relations — and therefore is quite a force for Republicans to go up against in budget negotiations.

John Baer: Budget will be late, painful

Philadelphia Daily News’ political columnist John Baer writes this week that it looks dismal that the state budget will get passed on time, and without some sort of tax increase to go with it. He also believes that Mayor Nutter will have his request met to raise Philadelphia’s sales tax from 7% to 8% to deal with the city’s budget deficit.

34 days until budget deadline, and political wars waging

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.

Rendell says PA may avoid tax increases in this year’s budget

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Rendell says that although the state may be able to avoid broad-based tax increases this year, there may need to be an increase in the future if revenue numbers continue to drop.

House GOP Leader asks Dems to show how they will pay for their budget

Yesterday, House Republican Leader Sam Smith issued a press release stating that instead of complaining about the Senate Republicans budget plan he’d like for the Democrats to release their plan on how they will fund their budget proposal this year.