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Fines, work schedules seen as way to possibly get state fiscal plan passed on time.
HARRISBURG — Regimented work schedules and fines for tardiness?
These are some of the ideas being floated to break a string of five straight years during which Gov. Ed Rendell and the Legislature wrapped up a state budget after the fiscal year began.
This year’s impasse wasn’t the most protracted battle, but it was the first under Rendell that resulted in a shutdown of certain government services. The one-day furlough of nearly 24,000 state employees closed state parks, museums, historic sites and driver licensing centers July 9.
When he signed the $27.2 billion spending plan on Tuesday, Rendell insisted that the process, however painful, was worth it in the end.
But he also conceded there was room for improvement. Rendell said he would work with legislative leaders to devise schedules for completing work that looms in the fall — such as banning smoking in public buildings and workplaces, expanding state-subsidized health coverage for the uninsured and paying for environmental cleanups — as well as the 2008-09 budget next spring.
Trying to craft such a schedule could foment greater discord, however, especially with the Senate’s Republican majority. GOP legislative leaders agree that the budget should have been passed earlier, but question the notion of consulting the governor on their work schedule. “For the governor to set our legislative calendar is about the same as our setting his calendar for going around the state,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson.
A coalition of citizen activists pushing for changes in the Legislature say getting an earlier start isn’t enough. On Monday, they plan to discuss a proposal by Common Cause of Pennsylvania that would impose fines and withhold pay for lawmakers and the governor if a budget isn’t passed on time.
The proposal calls for budgets to be passed by May 15 in the House and by June 21 — or 35 days after a House vote — in the Senate. Missing either deadline would cost lawmakers $100 a day in fines.
A budget delayed past June 30 would require lawmakers and the governor to forfeit their salaries for each day of an impasse.
Common Cause’s executive director, Barry Kauffman, said his group first proposed the plan in 1991.
This year, Pennsylvania was one of five states that failed to enact a budget before June 30, according to Arturo Perez of the National Conference of State Legislatures. The others still lack budgets but have maintained services through special mechanisms that allow continued spending.
“Any time we hold legislators and the administration to a higher degree of accountability, I think that’s good,” Scarnati said. “On the other hand, there are many legislators who don’t necessarily have the ability to sustain themselves (financially).”
Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo also questioned whether a punishment for budget tardiness is the best tool for ensuring an on-time budget. “What should motivate all the participants in the budget process is not the fear of a penalty, but the need to act in the best interest of the people they serve.”