Pa. budget deal appears jeopardized

HARRISBURG - The tenuous bipartisan budget deal that Gov. Rendell and legislative leaders announced two weeks ago appeared to be in jeopardy last night.

Democrats on a House committee voted to rewrite several elements of the deal by hiking the proposed tax on casino table games, and taxing cigars, smokeless tobacco, and natural-gas drilling, but not raffles at VFW halls or tickets to the performing arts.

The measure, approved on party lines, is a concession to rank-and-file members who have been bombarded with protests in recent days by a range of angry constituents, from firefighters to heads of philharmonics.

But Republicans in both chambers warned that the Democrats' move could send the budget agreement "down a path to implosion," as Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware), said last night.

The Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, Jake Corman (R., Centre), said: "It's unfortunate that they're breaking away from the agreement."

The full House is expected to debate the Democrats' measure today.

Like the budget deal announced Sept. 18, the new measure would legalize poker and other table games in slot parlors, but would tax them at 34 percent.

Previous proposals called for tax rates in the teens or 20s.

"We have stood firm against big tobacco, firm against big casinos," Rep. Bob Belfanti (D., Northumberland) said. "We're not going to allow the Senate to send us anything and tell us to accept 100 percent of it."

The House Democrats' move came only hours after a fellow Democrat - the governor - said he remained committed to the original deal but added that to get the needed votes, changes might be necessary. He characterized those changes as small.

"If the deal doesn't hold up, we have to look at ways to compromise," he said. "Is this unraveling? We'll see.

"We should stay here" in Harrisburg, Rendell said. "We should work hard. We should compromise. We should absorb the pain that comes from a difficult year," he told reporters at an afternoon briefing. "No more excuses. No more going home."

He acknowledged that the deal he struck with legislative leaders two weeks ago was "meeting roadblocks."

Pileggi warned during the day that any significant changes would set budget negotiations "back to Square One."

"The components of the agreement are the result of intense and lengthy negotiations. It is obvious that you cannot simply swap out one source of revenue for another," Pileggi said.

Arneson, Pileggi's spokesman, accused the House of "trying to have its cake and eat it, too, by avoiding some of the tough elements of the agreement."

"All we have here is a committee vote, but if the full House passes this modified revenue package, essentially the budget negotiations will be seriously set back," Arneson said. "I don't want to describe it as imploding, but it certainly starts us down a path of implosion."

Since the tentative budget deal was announced, the $27.9 billion spending package has encountered sharp opposition from various interest groups and, most recently, from rank-and-file House Democrats who only this week learned of the finer details.

In particular, three elements have gummed up the works: the plan to impose the sales tax on tickets to plays, concerts, zoos, and museums; a proposal to open more state lands to natural-gas drilling; and a new tax on raffles and other small games of chance run by fire halls and fraternal groups.

Over the last few days, more House Democrats have spoken out against those proposals and threatened to buck their leaders and vote against the overall package if it isn't changed.

The measure approved last night in the House Rules Committee essentially swaps out the so-called arts tax and raffle tax for levies on natural-gas drillers and smokeless tobacco and cigars. Senate Republicans have said repeatedly they cannot support the latter two taxes.

As for Rendell's call for lawmakers to stay in Harrisburg, the House has instructed members to remain on duty at the Capitol through at least tomorrow.

Senate Republicans, who control the upper chamber, were a little less emphatic. They put members on a "six-hour call," meaning they are not in session but must be ready to return to the Capitol in that amount of time if called upon.

In the meantime, a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found that the tentative budget deal was not popular, with only 31 percent of 1,100 Pennsylvanians polled saying they approved of it.

Asked who was to blame for the impasse, more people said they believed it was Rendell (27 percent) than Republicans in the legislature (21 percent).

Rendell's popularity rating remained dismal - 42 percent said they approved of how he was handling his job.

But that was a gain of 3 percentage points from the last survey, in July.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.