Pa. Legislature Approves Budget Before Deadline

by KYW's Tony Romeo

A rare occurrence for Governor Rendell, in his final year in office: a completed Pennsylvania budget on the way to his desk before the stroke of midnight on June 30th, the end of the fiscal year.  But the spending package will have to wait a few days for the Governor's signature.

The state Senate gave final approval to the budget Wednesday afternoon (see related story) and the state House followed suit in the early evening. During House debate on the bill, Berks County Republican and former gubernatorial candidate Sam Rohrer claimed that the budget being approved is not legitimate because it still anticipates getting a huge infusion of federal dollars about which Congressional approval is in doubt.:

"You cannot offer a balanced budget when you have at least $850 million dollars worth of revenue that depends on a fickle body in Washington that may or may not do what they say they're going to do."

Meanwhile, even though lawmakers have passed a spending bill before the deadline, Governor Rendell says he won't sign it until other bills in the budget package, including the accompanying revenue bill, are passed, something that won't happen for a few more days.