Press Release: Capitolwire: Revenue Shortfall Estimate Now $2.3 Billion, Says Governor Rendell
Press Release: Capitolwire: Revenue Shortfall Estimate Now $2.3 Billion, Says Governor Rendell
HARRISBURG (Jan. 22) - Some unspecified employee layoffs or unpaid furloughs are coming in the next proposed state budget, as the state now faces at least a $2.3 billion revenue shortfall this budget year, Gov. Ed Rendell estimated.
Rendell said he now believes the state will get $2 billion to $4 billion from President Barack Obama's stimulus plan that it can partly use for deficit and shortfall relief.
But Rendell added, that at least hundreds of millions of that money would go first to paying for "uncontrollable" prison costs and other mandated increases in the costs of paying for health care for those on welfare.
The remainder of the federal aid can be used over the next two years to plug budget holes, but Rendell said he wanted to spread it out over three years to avoid having his successor, who takes office in 2011, "inherit a giant budget deficit."
On the layoffs, Rendell said some programs would have to be shelved for at least a year or longer, and that once programs were abolished, "even with the best-case scenario, with the elimination of some programs, ... [that] probably means layoffs.
"There will be some layoffs and there will be universal pain. ... And I don't want to hear any whining."
Rendell said the job reductions may end up as unpaid furloughs, layoffs or a combination of the two.
Rendell also announced a changed date for his budget speech, which will now occur Feb. 4.
In December, Rendell predicted a $1.6 billion revenue shortfall and proposed a plan to close it.
To close the additional $700 million increase in the current-budget-year revenue gap he predicted yesterday, Rendell proposed to use more of the federal stimulus money in the next two years' budgets, and to have the Legislature return $170 million from its reserves.
The Legislature has said it needs some reserves in case they get into a budget stalemate with the governor and he vetos their budget.
Asked if he would agree not to veto the legislative portion of the budget if the Legislature agreed to give up the reserve sum he requested, he declined to make that pledge.
But Rendell said that unlike stories he hears about the late Gov. Bob Casey Sr., who Rendell said punished straying lawmakers, "that is not my style."
Rendell, addressing the portrait of Casey on the wall in the governor's reception room, apologized if the stories were untrue, then said he is told Casey would rescind state funds or programs from any lawmaker who surprised Casey with a negative vote. Then, Rendell said he was told that Casey would do the same to the lawmaker's legislative neighbors, to bring peer pressure on lawmakers to vote as the governor expected.
Rendell said he tries to maintain a good working relationship with the Legislature, and looking right at Rep. Glen Grell, R-Cumberland, and a House GOP aide, said: "I am not going to be punitive with the Legislature. ... I would never be punitive to the Legislature."