Budget standoff settled

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Legislators and the governor brokered a deal that ended the state budget impasse Monday night, and state workers will return to their jobs after nearly 24,000 people were sent home without pay.

Scores of state parks, state-run museums and driver’s-license offices around the state were closed Monday on orders of Gov. Ed Rendell after a partisan deadlock held up the budget nine days into the new fiscal year.

“This is an agreement where all sides can say that they achieved some of their goals, and that’s probably a good budget agreement,” Rendell said, declaring himself “very satisfied with where we came out.”

The deal addresses some of Rendell’s health care and energy initiatives but will not impose the surcharge on electricity use the governor had sought, said Sen. Vince Fumo, ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.

“I rate it good,” he said. “It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Budget Secretary Michael Masch said the budget total was about $27.37 billion, close to what Democrats had proposed.

The deal ended a tense day in the Capitol during which Republican House members took to the chamber floor for more than four hours in a bit of political theater to accuse majority Democrats of avoiding a showdown over a stopgap bill to pay state workers.

Despite the one-day partial shutdown, such critical services as health care for the poor, state police patrols, emergency response and prisons were maintained by the 52,000 workers whose jobs were designated as critical.

In total, 23,562 employees were furloughed, with total wages of $3.5 million a day, according to Rendell’s Office of Administration.

The administration had previously said furloughed workers wouldn’t be paid for the time off, but on Monday night Rendell said “options that we have to lessen the impact” were under consideration. He said he planned to announce something in the coming days.

Republicans won an increase in the Educational Improvement Tax Credit that fosters school choice and the rolling of $300 million of the surplus into next year’s spending, Fumo said.

“The governor proposed seven tax hikes,” said Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, a Republican. “This agreement has zero.”

Among other things, Rendell, a Democrat, got a film industry tax credit capped at $75 million.