With two weeks remaining in the fiscal year, it again will determine whether Ed Rendell breaks his seven-year streak of late state budgets or whether he and lawmakers actually get one done on time.
My money's on the streak. When you're hot, you let it ride.
The Guv and the Legislature mix like oil and water (Are you picturing the Gulf of Mexico?) so it's likely that the June 30 deadline gets missed again.
But because it's an election year for the House and half the Senate, and since the Legislature took so much guff last year for its 101-days-late budget, it's unlikely that the deadline is missed by much.
In fact - I hope you're sitting down - some leaders say it could get done on time.
What? In Pennsylvania?
"It could get done on time," says House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans. "Legislatively, it could get done." (The operative word here is "legislatively.")
It could get done because the Democratic-controlled House is scheduled to vote this week on a bill with new taxes on cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco and the extraction of natural gas, part of a package worth about $300 million.
By borrowing from other funds and making adjustments in other payments, the goal is balancing what's expected to be a $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion deficit after June revenue-collection numbers are in.
Even though this same-old approach is as creative as wearing a smiley-face button when happy, it could get done because Republicans, who control the Senate, aren't calling it dead-on-arrival. In fact, leaders from both chambers are to meet on the plan on Wednesday.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman, when asked if he shares Democratic on-time optimism, says, "Up to a point, yes." His caveat is you-know-who: "It only takes one," Corman says. And you-know-who is why Evans says that "legislatively" it could get done.
Plus, Gov. You-Know-Who already said he's willing to go another 100 days. No harm to him; he can't seek re-election.
