Will the sky fall come Tuesday?

The battle over the state budget is being waged on two fronts.

One front involves how the budget will impact state programs and state taxpayers. The other front is what kind of ripple effect the budget will have on local governments and local taxpayers.

Both Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and Republican lawmakers are going to great lengths to explain how their proposals will affect the education programs provided by school districts, the human services programs provided by county governments and the taxpayers who support them.

Rendell used the bully pulpit on this issue last week. He appeared with 10 county commissioners from urban and rural counties to warn that a state budget without a major tax increase will result in inadequate levels of state aid to counties.

This will force counties to hike property taxes to pay for mandated human service programs such as children and youth services and mental health and mental retardation services, said Rendell.

"They (commissioners) don't want Harrisburg to be buck-passers," he added.

Earlier in the week, Rendell made the same point about school property taxes as he stumped for his proposal to hike the state personal income tax rate from 3.07 percent to 3.57 percent in order to generate $1.5 billion in new revenues annually.

While not taking a position on the governor's tax hike proposal, the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania is calling for a budget that stabilizes state aid to counties.

Scarnati favors cuts

Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-25, Jefferson County, said school districts and counties should find ways to cut spending rather than relying on revenues from a state tax hike.

"How much more do school districts and counties need?" said Scarnati on WITF, a public TV station based in the Harrisburg area. "Isn't it time that counties and school districts find a way to cut 5 percent to 10 percent out of their budget? This isn't a huge number."

In a recent memo to school districts, GOP senators rejected claims that their no-tax-hike budget bill would lead to school property tax hikes.

"This argument is illogical since the bill would provide most school districts with hundreds of thousands of dollars in increased state/federal funding," the memo said.

Another view

A "sky-is-falling" mood will overtake the Capitol when Tuesday's deadline for passing the state budget for fiscal 2009-10 comes and goes with little progress in sight. That's the prognosis given the deep partisan stalemate over bridging the $3.2 billion revenue gap.

Sen. John Wozniak, D-35, Johnstown, offers a different perspective in an op-ed piece. Wozniak suggests the gridlock in Pennsylvania's budget process is a sign of a healthy democracy. He said democracy spreads power among competing interests, reflecting the different priorities of 12 million Pennsylvanians. It's a very unwieldy process compared with the efficiency of one-party rule.

"While I disagree with many of my colleagues, I respect that they fight for their constituents," wrote Wozniak. "No one wants to give in. The trick is to find compromise short of surrender."

(Swift is Harrisburg bureau chief for Times-Shamrock Communications newspapers. E-mail rswift@timesshamrock.com.)

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