Editorial: A chilly budget season

It's a harsh budget season in Harrisburg, as students in the "Classrooms for the Future" program learned the other day.

About 200 high school students from across the state visited the Capitol to demonstrate innovative projects that they created with computer equipment purchased with $45 million in state grants.

Their annual tour included the floor of the Senate, where legislators were debating next year's budget and how to close a $3 billion deficit. Senators gave the kids a warm ovation.

But after the students walked out of the chamber, the Republican-controlled Senate voted to eliminate funding for their program. Gov. Rendell, by comparison, only wants to cut it in half.

Classrooms for the Future is just one line item in the state's roughly $28 billion budget. But it exemplifies the tussle between Rendell and Senate Republicans in this severe recession. Even the addition of more than $2 billion in federal aid for Fiscal Year 2009-2010 hasn't helped the two sides bridge their ideological gap.

Rendell and his Democratic allies want to cobble together revenue from several other sources, including tobacco taxes and the state's Rainy Day Fund, to preserve safety-net programs and boost education spending. They would lower state spending less than 1 percent.

Senate Republicans start with a goal of no new taxes or fees and would use federal aid to help fill in gaps, spending far less than Democrats on education and programs for the needy. They would reduce state spending about 8 percent.

That would include deep cuts in medical assistance, when there's more demand for such services. Long-term care and mental-health services would be cut.

The GOP plan would also eliminate a $16 million program to retrain unemployed workers; Rendell would cut it by $4 million. Republicans would cut in half the state's $75 million subsidy to public libraries, when more people are using those facilities to hunt for jobs.

A variety of economic-development programs would be cut in the Senate plan, including funding for ports, zoos, and museums.

After criticizing Rendell in February for proposing cuts to agriculture, the GOP would slash farm programs even deeper.

The Senate bill would spend about $300 million less than Rendell on the state's basic K-12 education subsidy.

Rendell and the legislature have a duty to tighten their budget belts 'til it hurts, to avoid a general tax increase on families who can't afford it. Indeed, the governor still needs to cut more from his spending proposals.

But Republican legislators want drastic cuts to avoid minor tax increases proposed by Rendell.

A natural-gas severance tax would simply be the cost of doing business for producers who face the same tax in other states. And Pennsylvania is still the only state in the nation that doesn't tax cigars and smokeless tobacco.

Combined, Rendell's proposals would raise about $650 million without touching the state sales tax or personal income tax.

The budget deadline is June 30, and the two sides are about $1 billion apart. There's room for compromise, but partisan posturing needs to be set aside.