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Pa. Legislators Promise On-Time Budget, Despite Challenges

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - Legislative leaders continue to predict that Pennsylvania will have an on-time budget for the first time in years, even though the deadline is just eleven days off now, with a lot of unknowns still in the mix.

Even with a Republican Governor and GOP-controlled legislature, there are still disagreements on the budget, and at least one other major item could complicate matters further. The top Republican in the Senate, Joe Scarnati, is one of many lawmakers who favor impact fees on natural gas drilling. And last week, Scarnati said that unless that issue is resolved, there will likely be efforts to amend impact fee language into the fiscal code, one of a package of bills that comprise the budget.

"Do we really want to send a fiscal code bill to the governor on June 30th with a provision in there that he can't sign? I don't that that's anybody's intent. But that can happen," Scarnati said.

Nonetheless, House Majority Leader Mike Turzai took to the floor last week and made this promise: "For the first time in nine years, I can assure you this: we will have an on-time, constitutional budget."

We'll see.

Reported by Harrisburg Bureau Chief Tony Romeo, KYW Newsradio 1060

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