Corman said he canceled a scheduled Feb. 23 appearance by state judiciary officials before his committee for a different reason: to give the state's highest court more time to resolve controversy over legislative redistricting. Corman said he planned to reschedule that hearing.
The moves left Senate Democrats angry that Corman pulled the plug on hearings when budget cuts are anticipated and questions linger over Penn State's child sex-abuse scandal.
Budget hearings, long a fixture of Harrisburg's legislative calendar, are routinely scheduled in the weeks following a governor's delivery of a proposed fiscal-year budget message in early February. Cabinet secretaries who head various departments and agencies, along with colleges and other entities that receive state funding, make their cases for funding increases - or, as in more recent years, attempt to stave off cuts.
Penn State president Graham B. Spanier made a splash last year when he engaged in a public war of words with Corbett over deep cuts proposed to the state-related colleges' budget.
Spanier - fired in November after the filing of criminal charges against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and two other university officials - won that round to the extent that much of the school's funding was restored by the legislature.
Budget hearings, which generally run into March and are broadcast on Pennsylvania Cable Network, give the public a view of the process, and afford an opportunity for lawmakers to raise policy issues with top officials, often leading to revealing exchanges.
State Sen. Vincent Hughes, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said the five hearings held in the fall do not count because they were conducted long before Corbett's budget speech, scheduled for Tuesday.
"We owe our institutions the opportunity to testify," said Hughes, who threatened to hold his own hearings if Corman does not.
