Corman says Rendell creating controversy

Mike Joseph

A Senate Republican leader charged Thursday that Gov. Ed Rendell “would like” the budget impasse to last until July 17 — the last day many state employees will collect a paycheck — in

hopes it will help build political support for the governor’s proposed income tax increase.

State Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, made the remarks as lawmakers began leaving Harrisburg for the July Fourth weekend with no budget in sight and no plans to return until Monday.

A Rendell spokesman charged in return that Senate Republican leaders have launched a “blame game” after ignoring the governor’s repeated invitations in the spring to meet about the budget.

Rendell and the Senate Republicans are locked in a stalemate over whether to raise taxes or cut expenses to balance the budget for fiscal year 2009-10, which began Wednesday. The new year limped ahead with state employees facing work without pay and some state agencies unable to pay vendors for goods such as spare parts for trucks.

Department of Transportation maintenance workers, to cite one agency, will get their last full paycheck today and on July 17 will be paid for their hours worked in the last seven days of the fiscal year gone by. They’ll receive no further pay until after a budget is enacted.

Rendell said Tuesday he didn’t expect the budget to be resolved this week “or even possibly next week” as he pushed for a 16 percent income tax increase against Senate Republican refusal to agree to it.

Corman said Thursday that Rendell “kind of likes a crisis mode” and likes to “create a crisis and move from there.”

“I think the governor would like to see it get to the 17th, thinking that that will probably put pressure on us to come his way — I think that’s what he would like to see happen,” Corman said.

“Unhappy as we will be about that, that’s not going to make us come his way. We just don’t think that’s a responsible way to move forward. He can create a crisis if he wants, but that’s not going to make us sacrifice our future for a short-term crisis.”

Interviews with Penn- DOT maintenance employees in Bellefonte on Wednesday made clear that their last scheduled paycheck could be a watershed moment. Asked to describe his attitude toward the budget crisis, PennDOT equipment manager Dan Dibble told a reporter: “Come back on the 17th.”

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo on Thursday said the governor is by no means strategizing around the July 17 paycheck. Ardo recounted a series of three letters from the governor to legislators — one a month in April, May and June — inviting them to budget talks.

“The Republican leadership likes to play the blame game,” Ardo said. “They ignored each one of his appeals. Now that the crisis is upon us, they are trying to deflect the blame they so richly deserve.”

In addition to Corman, lawmakers with Centre County constituents include state Reps. Kerry Benninghoff, Scott Conklin and Mike Hanna, and state Sen. John Wozniak, D-Westmont, whose district includes Rush Township and Philipsburg.

They’ve been hearing from the people.

Conklin, a Rush Township Democrat who opposes the proposed Rendell income tax increase, said most of those he’s heard from think a higher income tax “is not a good idea.” Benninghoff, a Bellefonte Republican, said a “high percentage” of people oppose higher taxes of any kind.

“The everyday taxpayers who are just trying to pay their bills are saying don’t tax us any more,” Benninghoff said. “It’s a tough time. The economy’s not bouncing back like we thought it would.”

Corman said a majority of his mail is from people urging the restoration of funding for one program or another. But few, he noted, ask for a tax increase in exchange for that funding.

Wozniak said through his chief of staff, Jill Leeper, that he’s “not sure yet” about whether he favors the Rendell tax increase. Leeper said Wozniak summed up his constituents’ sentiment this way: “Don’t cut their programs. But don’t raise their taxes, either.”

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.