It’s a late blog post because I just got off the floor at about midnight. We passed the budget today without my vote or Mike Folmer’s. The budget vote itself was interesting. The floor was quiet for a change and the leaders were recognized on both sides of the aisle for remarks. Mike Folmer and I spoke in addition to the leaders as did Democrat Senator Anthony Williams. Williams spoke in reaction to Mike Folmer’s comments on the Governor and spoke in favor of the budget. Both Mike and I felt that it was important to speak on the floor and let people know why we did not support this budget. Although it did not meet our expectations in various ways, we both agreed and said that it was better than any other budget under Governor Rendell and was very close to being a budget that we could support. My hope is that next year, we have a budget that we can enthusiastically endorse. The members of the Republican caucus, including our leadership, seem sincerely interested in looking closely at budget lines over the year and not simply providing COLAs to many programs and deciding which new program can be squeezed into the mix. This is how things have been done and this is why we have a bloated budget with many programs that are no longer effective, efficient or needed. The good news is that there is no new state-wide tax in this budget. Even though I am not happy about the overall budget, I give a lot of credit to our leaders for holding firm on this issue. The Governor pushed hard for new taxes and so did the D’s in the House, our guys, even outnumbered, held off the attack.
- John
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