Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi spoke before a more crowded than usual Pennsylvania Press Club this afternoon. More newsworthy material from the speech/Q&A includes:
-Legislative leaders from all four caucuses have agreed on a spending plan “a bit north of 28 billion dollars.” Pileggi says lawmakers reached this consensus on Saturday, but that talks broke down once Governor Rendell started reviewing the details and adjusting various line items. Rendell’s spokesman, Gary Tuma, says the administration isn’t commenting on Pileggi’s remarks.
-The Senate will pass an appropriations bill by the June 30th budget deadline, whether or not Rendell has agreed to its specifics.
-Rendell is “nonnegotiable” on the fact the budget needs to assume $850 million of FMAP money. Pileggi says that’s despite the fact “no one” thinks the amount will ultimately come through. The issue here is that Rendell wants to trim the money out of the budget himself, while Republicans would rather have a say over what line items are cut. Rendell has warned trimming the federal money out of the budget would result in 20,000 state employee layoffs.
