Budget's final pieces in place
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HARRISBURG -- Rarely have three little words caused such a Capitol fuss.
But the Legislature's effort to create an "Independent Fiscal Office" finally won approval, in concept, during an unusual Saturday session, as state lawmakers completed their work on a $28 billion budget for fiscal 2010-11 and headed home.
The House and Senate approved and sent to Gov. Ed Rendell several bills related to revenue matters, which will accompany the main budget bill that was approved Wednesday. Those measures included a fiscal code bill, a welfare code bill and two measures to permit borrowing of $600 million for redevelopment and construction projects around the state.
"Governor Rendell is pleased and gratified that the final parts of the budget were completed as expeditiously as possible," the governor's spokesman, Gary Tuma, said Saturday. The governor plans to sign budget-related bills Tuesday.
The fiscal code bill includes the Legislature's "intent" to create the Independent Fiscal Office, which had been strongly pushed by Senate Republicans. A dispute with the other three General Assembly caucuses had delayed action on this matter for several days, as opponents said the fiscal office would be an expensive new bureaucracy that wasn't needed, at least at this time.
But Senate Republicans contended the new office would be similar to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and would "take the politics out" of the annual process of estimating state revenues, which must be done before a budget can be adopted. The office would also let the Legislature get state agencies' annual budget requests, which now go only to the governor's office each fall.
The dispute over the new fiscal office delayed final approval of all budget-related bills until Saturday. Approval of the main $28 billion budget bill on Wednesday marked the first time in Mr. Rendell's eight years as governor that a complete budget bill was approved on time, meaning by June 30.
House Democrats complained that Senate Republicans didn't bring up the issue of the new fiscal office until the last minute -- a day or two before the Wednesday budget vote. Senate Republicans disputed that, saying the fiscal office has been in the works ever since October.
First Published July 4, 2010 12:00 am
