State budget total could be larger

First Posted:

MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG — The top Pennsylvania House Republican said Monday that next year’s state budget total may end up being larger than the current proposal of $27.3 billion if Gov. ’s budget secretary predicts more robust state revenues.

Speaker Sam Smith also said at a Pennsylvania Press Club event in Harrisburg that he expects action soon on proposals to tax Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction.
Smith, R-Jefferson, said he was unsure whether a Marcellus impact fee will be able to pass the House, and that it will depend largely on whether the revenue will go to local needs.
As state revenues have surged ahead of projections in recent months, Democrats have led calls to use the additional money to restore proposed reductions in education and health care programs. At the end of April, the current year’s tax collections were $506 million more than expected, with two months left in the fiscal year.
Smith said he was open to a higher figure if the Corbett administration’s revenue estimate comes in higher than $27.3 billion for 2011-12, but that the money stream has to be “reliable and predictable” to support the additional spending.
“This ‘let’s spend every penny we have’ mentality is what got us into this problem,” Smith said, hours before the chamber was due to consider amendments to the House Republicans’ budget bill.
House Democratic spokesman Bill Patton said his caucus has only proposed a few amendments, and those may be withdrawn. He called the GOP spending plan for 2011-12 “beyond saving.”
The budget bill was scheduled for final House consideration today or Wednesday, after which it will be taken up in the Senate. Leaders in both chambers have said they are determined to pass the budget before the June 30 deadline.
In Smith’s wide-ranging speech, he also voiced his opposition to a proposal to allow governments to place their legal notices on their own websites. Newspapers strongly oppose the bill, which would deprive them of legal advertising dollars.
Smith said his position was affected by the historical role newspapers have played in the governing process, and out of a concern that the instant nature of today’s Internet-driven information society might lead to a “pure democracy” in which all decisions are made by instant majority rule.