Harrisburg – Senator Lisa Baker made the following statement following
Governor Rendell's budget address:
"The desire to deliver a state budget on time this year does not
diminish the need to spend less and hold the line on state taxes. For
me to vote for a state budget, it must be better in regard to
controlling spending and avoiding tax increases than the current budget
is."
"It would be a serious mistake to continue Governor Rendell's
strategy of shrinking funding for services that disabled and vulnerable
individuals depend on. Cuts in state programs were necessary last year,
and will be needed again this year. But the Governor made a number of
poor choices on where to eliminate programs or drastically reduce
funding. Some very good programs have been zeroed out, while others
that are really marginal in value continue to be funded. It makes no
sense to anyone outside of state government to cut libraries that many
citizens utilize, and yet keep a film tax credit for moviemakers."
"Although the deficit is not expected to be as large as last year's,
this budget might be harder to solve because nearly all the state
reserve funds have been drained."
"If there is an assessment placed on the gas drilling in the
Marcellus Shale, the money generated should first be directed to the
impacted communities, and to environmental protection and oversight
efforts."
"Just putting more money toward the pension problem is not enough of
an answer for taxpayers. Steps have to be taken to shrink future costs
of the pension systems."
"At the same time we are trying to put together a responsible and
affordable state budget, we should also be working on approving budget
reform measures that will prevent the sort of harmful crisis that was
inflicted on Pennsylvania last year. Two bills I recently introduced
are a good starting point for this debate."
