"Shame on these legislators who are shirking their responsibilities. Quit hiding. Quit playing games and pass the budget. We ought to do what is right and pass the budget now," said George, 81, who has worked through more than 30 state budgets in a legislative career that began in the 1970s.
". . . Both Republicans and Democrats have an obligation to get a budget done, and if they can't make their point by a certain time, then they shouldn't be here."
Yesterday marked the 91st day Pennsylvania has operated without a completed budget - the only state in the nation still without one in place.
George said his colleagues should have had the courage to support Gov. Rendell's come-and-gone proposal to fill the state's billion-dollar budget hole by temporarily increasing the personal-income tax by 16 percent. And he chided them for not supporting another Rendell idea - an excise tax on smokeless tobacco and cigars. (The tentative budget deal does include a quarter-a-pack hike in the cigarette tax and a new tax on cigarillos.)
"Which of these legislators have ever bought their own cigars?" George said. "They don't smoke them if someone doesn't give them to them first."
He has come to be known for delivering such part-reprimand, part-humor declarations during his 18 terms in the House. Colleagues call them "George-isms." In a floor speech years ago, he said: "I wouldn't slam an outhouse door as hard as they slam people in this General Assembly."
George, the chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, said yesterday that he did not believe lawmakers were any closer to concluding a $27.9 billion budget deal than they were when they announced the handshake agreement with Rendell on the night of Sept. 18. Rendell has said he wanted the budget bills on his desk by Sunday - or Tuesday at the latest. Legislative leaders have said they were not certain they would hit the hoped-for deadline.
