Budget Bill

When he was running for re-election in 1982, Gov. Thornburgh scarcely let a week go by that he did not appear in some town or city to stand, smiling, next to a large mockup of a government grant check that the community was to receive. If Altoona was getting $15 million for road work, or if Williamsport was receiving $2 million for an environmental-assessment study, the governor was there, even though his role in the awarding of the grant had been minimal. This year, Democrats who recall the political mileage Thornburgh got out of announcing what were in many cases routine state grants appear to be trying to limit the ability of his would-be successor, Lt. Gov. William W. Scranton 3d, to play the same game.

The Senate early today approved a budget bill that would raise the gasoline tax to 18 cents a gallon as part of a broadly based collection of new taxes and spending reductions. With the Senate action on a vote of 54-46, the five-month-long budget battle moves into its most critical stage, in which the House and Senate must agree on a single bill that resolves their differences over the gasoline tax and tax rates for the wealthy. Lawmakers had been trying to reach a budget accord before 12:01 a.m. tomorrow, when the government's authority to operate expires.

As most schoolchildren know, the Constitution requires the House and Senate to approve a bill before the president can sign it into law. But that didn't stop President Bush last month from signing a budget bill that, it turns out, was not approved by the House. A congressional clerk inserted a mistake in the House version of the $39 billion measure, changing a provision regarding Medicare reimbursements for medical equipment. Before the bill reached the President's desk, Republican leaders warned the White House that the Senate and House bills were not identical.

WASHINGTON - Congress voted Thursday to keep the federal government running through the end of September - but not before a struggle that saw both conservative and liberal opposition to the compromise spending plan painstakingly crafted by the White House and congressional negotiators. The vote in the GOP-led House was 260-167, with 59 Republicans breaking ranks with their party leadership to vote against the deal, which calls for $38 billion in spending cuts this year. The Republican defections, a result of opposition from conservatives who said the bill did not do enough to rein in spending, forced Speaker John A. Boehner to turn to Democrats to help pass the bill.

Pennsylvania's $22.7 billion state budget - which by law should have been approved on June 30 - remained caught in a bottleneck early this morning after the state House worked late to pass a gambling bill, 113-88. Legislative leaders said the budget bill would not be taken up until the slots bill and the property tax reform bill had cleared both chambers. Late yesterday afternoon, gambling opponents offered an amendment to prohibit lawmakers from holding any interest in gambling companies, and a contentious 1 1/2-hour debate ensued.

Congress yesterday approved the huge Republican budget bill that would scale back programs for the elderly and poor, cut taxes for middle-class families and investors, and put the government on track to a balanced budget. With GOP lawmakers cheering the vote, the House ratified the seven-year balanced budget, 237-189, almost exclusively along party lines. A few hours later, the Senate concurred, 52-47, but with a minor change that requires another vote in the House today. After that, it would go to the White House, where President Clinton is almost certain to veto it. As the Senate debated the bill last night, White House chief of staff Leon Panetta negotiated with congressional leaders.

They told Gov. Ridge: Don't mess with our pet issues. They also voted to spend more on education than Ridge wanted, even dipping into their own internal reserves to pay for new textbooks for public school students. When House members passed a $17.06 billion fiscal 1997-98 budget last week, they delivered a message about their priorities, but crossed their fingers as they sent it to the Senate. Not all members were optimistic about its fate. "That budget coming back from the Senate won't look the same at all," said Rep. Mario J. Civera Jr. (R., Delaware)

In a stunning breakdown of Republican unity, House leaders failed yesterday to muster enough votes to pass $50 billion in budget savings, their ranks torn between moderate and conservative wings that rejected pleas for party discipline. The GOP leaders, who also faced unified Democratic opposition, were forced to pull the budget bill off the House floor rather than see it defeated. At the same time, rebellion by Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, a moderate Republican from Maine, blocked the Senate Finance Committee from approving a $70 billion tax-cut package, another Republican priority.

The House cleared another hurdle yesterday on its way toward passing a state budget by approving a resolution restricting the way the spending plan can be amended when it is voted on next week. Under the new rule, if legislators want to propose more money for schools, buses or health care, for instance, they will first have to find items to cut from the $16.2 billion budget that Gov. Ridge wants. Even with the rule, House leaders expect a tide of amendments to the budget. No matter what emerges from the House, many lawmakers say legislative leaders ultimately will end up drafting the final budget.

There were long, emotional and sometimes eloquent speeches. There was outrage. There was passion. There was drama. There were lights, cameras and action. Hollywood? No, Harrisburg. As events unfolded last week - from word of Dick Thornburgh's Senate candidacy to passage of a Philadelphia financial-rescue plan to House adoption of a state budget - the Capitol seemed transformed into theater. The actors rehearsed their lines. Makeup was dabbed on for the cameras. Popcorn machines whirred noisily into the night.

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major issues last week: House Concealed, loaded handguns. Voting 272-154, the House on Wednesday sent the Senate a bill (HR 822) making it easier for people to carry concealed, loaded handguns from state to state. The bill would impose a national standard on the existing patchwork of state laws on concealed handguns. It does so by allowing the "concealed-carry" law of one's home state to preempt any more restrictive laws the carrier encounters in other states.

HARRISBURG - Final details were being ironed out yesterday on a $27.15 billion budget agreement between Gov. Corbett and top lawmakers that is expected to cut spending by about 3 percent and deliver deep cuts in aid for public schools and state-supported universities. Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said that there is an agreement on many parts of the budget and that he hopes the rest will be resolved in time for a budget bill to be presented on Sunday in the chamber's Appropriations Committee.

HARRISBURG - Even as he negotiates behind closed doors with legislative leaders on the budget, Gov. Corbett said Monday that he would veto any fiscal plan that totaled more than $27.3 billion, or that imposed a tax or impact fee on natural gas extraction. The governor said he favored a fiscal plan that did not exceed the $27.3 billion proposal he unveiled in March more than he would one that came in by the June 30 deadline. Corbett's plan included steep cuts in funding for public schools and state-related universities, some of which the legislature is trying to restore.

LANCASTER, Pa. - With a little more than a week remaining before the state's June 30 budget deadline, Gov. Corbett signaled today that he favors a fiscal plan that does not exceed his $27.3 billion proposal more than one that comes in on time. "If this budget comes in at $27.35 billion, we're going to be here on July 1, or 2, or 3," Corbett said this morning in a speech to the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Commissioners in Lancaster. "I can stay here as long as it takes to pass a budget at $27.3 billion.

A break in Ariz. wildfire siege SPRINGERVILLE, Ariz. - Roughly 7,000 residents of two eastern Arizona towns evacuated last week as a wildfire burned nearby were allowed to return home Sunday as officials expressed confidence that they were finally making headway in battling the huge blaze, which has been burning since May. "Fire officials feel confident that these areas are safe," Apache County Sheriff's Cmdr. Webb Hogle said, referring to the towns of Springerville and Eagar.

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania House Republicans steamrollered over Democratic objections Monday to get their $27.3 billion budget bill a vote away from being sent to the Senate. The House voted, 110-89, to position the GOP spending plan for a final vote, suggesting it would advance easily. A final House vote could occur as early as Tuesday evening. Democrats opted not to offer amendments, instead making unsuccessful efforts to send the bill back to committee or table it. They warned the budget proposal would devastate education and human services and argued the spending level was too low, given that strong revenue collections in recent months have yielded a windfall for the state treasury.

HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett's nominee to head the state Department of Public Welfare says he doesn't know whether he can find $470 million in savings in the agency, as House Republicans are proposing in their new budget plan. Acting department secretary Gary Alexander told senators Wednesday during his confirmation hearing that saving money is a top priority. But he says that rooting out what Republicans call fraud, waste and abuse is a delicate process and that the savings could be less than $470 million, or more.

WASHINGTON - Congress voted Thursday to keep the federal government running through the end of September - but not before a struggle that saw both conservative and liberal opposition to the compromise spending plan painstakingly crafted by the White House and congressional negotiators. The vote in the GOP-led House was 260-167, with 59 Republicans breaking ranks with their party leadership to vote against the deal, which calls for $38 billion in spending cuts this year. The Republican defections, a result of opposition from conservatives who said the bill did not do enough to rein in spending, forced Speaker John A. Boehner to turn to Democrats to help pass the bill.

In just three months, freshman Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania has emerged as the deficit hawk's deficit hawk, and on Thursday all 47 of his GOP colleagues joined him in sponsoring a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. A cluster of senators, starting with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), voiced support for the bill that Toomey wrote after negotiating a deal between two sets of Republican senators with competing approaches to such an amendment. "A balanced budget is an absolutely necessary condition for the strong economic growth and job creation that, frankly, we were sent here to accomplish," Toomey said in his first full-bore Capitol news conference.