Editorial: Pennsylvania's Budget

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, June, 2008

Now that May has turned to June, Republican leaders in Harrisburg are warning that they might not be able to complete the state budget on time. This phenomenon is seasonal. Each spring, the robins return to Pennsylvania. Each June, state GOP leaders begin to chirp that Gov. Rendell has given them too much work to do.

The budget deadline is June 30. Rendell submitted his $28.3 billion spending plan in February. On most planets, that's enough time to finish a budget. But not in Harrisburg, where Democrat Rendell attempts annually to enact an ambitious agenda, and Republican legislators, like the George Costanza character on  Seinfeld , try to do the opposite. Last year, the partisan deadlock dragged on long enough to cause a one-day government shutdown. More than 20,000...