Governor Ed Rendell on Monday for the first time proposed a specific plan to raise roughly $1 billion more annually in transportation funding; the latest chapter in what has become the chief executive’s last major proposal before leaving office.

Continue reading GOVERNOR’S FUNDING-PLAN A DUD WITH SENATE GOP

After months of hand-wringing and pessimism in the Capitol that it would ever pass, a long-awaited bill containing hundreds of millions of dollars in FMAP funding cleared its biggest hurdle in Congress on Wednesday in a move Governor Rendell said will save the state from losing more than 10,000 jobs.

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Governor Ed Rendell said Tuesday the state will face losing more than 12,000 government and education jobs if the US Senate this week does not approve hundreds of millions of dollars in long-awaited FMAP assistance.

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The governor and legislative leaders Monday morning delayed a decision on cutting hundreds of millions of dollars out of this year’s budget amid suddenly renewed optimism that the US Senate might approve at least some of a long-awaited $850 million in federal medical assistance (FMAP) money.

Continue reading Leaders suddenly optimistic over FMAP money, expect Senate vote soon

Governor Ed Rendell on Monday pushed back by one month his request the special legislative session on transportation funding reconvene and vowed he remained optimistic lawmakers would seriously consider proposals to make up the half-a-billion-dollar gap in money for highways, bridges and mass-transit systems.

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MECHANICSBURG — Governor Ed Rendell touted the state’s $250 million increase in education funding during a budget-signing ceremony at a Mechanicsburg elementary school on Tuesday but reiterated his disappointment that lawmakers were unable to enact a series of taxes on tobacco products that could have held off further spending cuts.

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House lawmakers, as expected, approved the Fiscal Code on Saturday morning, although not before a top Republican leader questioned language in the legislation that was a centerpiece of a deal between Democrats and Senate Republicans.

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Legislative leaders reached an agreement Friday night over the budget’s remaining unresolved issue when House lawmakers inserted language into the Fiscal Code that called for the creation of an independent revenue watchdog, known as the Independent Fiscal Office.

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Legislative leaders say they are close to compromise on the creation of a Legislative Fiscal Office only a day after negotiations stalled badly.

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Budget negotiations, for perhaps the first time in this year’s process, took a heated turn Thursday night, when House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans’ (D-Philadelphia) blasted Senate Republicans for stalling the Fiscal Code over insistence that the Legislative Fiscal Office be included in the bill.

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