HARRISBURG — Deadline? What deadline?
For the fifth consecutive year, the June 30 cutoff to enact a new state budget came and went as lawmakers and Gov. Rendell failed to reach a compromise spending package.
Rendell and lawmakers - mainly Republicans - remain at odds over the $27.3 billion budget and a host of bills favored by the governor dealing with transportation, energy and health care.
On Thursday, Rendell, who has yet to sign a budget on time since coming to the Capitol in 2003, downplayed the significance of the deadline.
"There is no magic to the June 30 deadline," he said when another blown budget deadline became a certainty. "The people who care most about whether we get a budget agreement by June 30 are the people who habitate this building."
But the tune changed dramatically last night after the Senate broke about 8 p.m. without tackling any of the major budget-related bills and without setting a time to return.
Starting today, without a new fiscal blueprint in place, the state loses its ability to spend tax dollars. The state could furlough about a third of its 78,000 employees who are deemed nonessential starting Saturday, when their current pay period ends. Other employees responsible for health and safety - from state police to caseworkers - will remain on the job regardless of the budget impasse.
Welfare and unemployment checks would still go out, but such places as state parks and driver's-license centers could shut down. Casinos, too, could close their doors because state Revenue Department workers who oversee gaming computers would be furloughed.
The last time a budget impasse caused furloughs was in 1991, and on Thursday, Rendell expressed confidence it would not come to that.
That confidence was gone last night.
"I'm very upset about this breakdown because it imperils the salaries state workers earn," Rendell said.
In a news conference about 90 minutes after the Senate recessed, Rendell toughened his rhetoric considerably, reminding Republicans that he was serious about fighting for his agenda and willing to wait them out, regardless of the furloughs.
"If there are people out there . . . that think that I won't, I want to remind them that they are looking at the mayor who took a 40-day transit strike," said Rendell, who as Philadelphia mayor suffered through a contract impasse with transit workers in 1998.
Talks had accelerated in the last two weeks, and both sides reported making headway.
