Update: Corbett fails to sign budget

A $29.1 billion general fund budget to keep Pennsylvania's state government in business passed the state House Monday night, just 90 minutes before the July 1 dawn of the new fiscal year.

Rep. Bryan Barbin speaks at the Capitol on the last day of the fiscal year Monday in Harrisburg.

Gov. Tom Corbett — who as early as Sunday afternoon was still pressing lawmakers for major changes to Pennsylvania's public pension systems — was being coy about his plans as the House debate progressed.

The House vote broke mostly on party lines, with 108 Republicans voting for a plan they praised as providing a modest boost in school funding and replenishing the ranks of the Pennsylvania State Police in spite of severe fiscal challenges without any increases in state taxes.

All 92 Democrats and three Republicans were opposed.

"We listened to the residents of Pennsylvania and we heard them tell us to make education a priority and we did," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman William Adolph, R-Delaware County.

"We also did this without raising taxes."

Democrats, who for years have argued for Pennsylvania's acceptance of federal Medicaid expansion, the imposition of a new severance tax on natural gas production, business tax reforms and other maneuvers to increase spending for schools and human services, excoriated a plan that was built behind closed doors in the last week without their help.

"This budget is a half-a-loaf kind of budget," said Rep. Joe Markosek, D-Allegheny County and the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

"It prioritizes business tax favors over funding our schools. It simply masks the state's serious fiscal problems, delaying the day of reckoning to another day… and likely a new administration."

Much of the floor debate centered on the Republican plan's reliance on about $1.7 billion in one-time accounting maneuvers and rosy economic projections needed to bring the plan into balance.

The budget does sweep funds out of loan accounts established to fund items capital projects by fire companies and equipment purchases by small businesses, and also reschedules monthly payments to managed care providers to save nearly $400 million.

"How can the makers of this budget look Pennsylvanians in the eye and say they did the best they could when it contains out-of-touch revenue forecasts and one-time raids on questionable funds?" asked Rep. Bryan Barbin, D-Cambria County.

Republicans pushed back just as hard, arguing that the transfers they were making were no different — and no larger — than the kind of steps that balanced many of former Gov. Ed Rendell's budgets.

"We had dead, staid money in accounts, sometimes for two and three years, just sitting there," said Rep. Jeff Pyle, R-Armstrong County, addressing the transfers.

"Now what some people might call gimmick, I call efficiency. For me, going to the tax base and strapping them for more money is not a first option. It is a final option."

Earlier Monday, the state Senate approved the same budget on a 26-24 near party-line vote, with all Republicans but Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-Bucks County, in favor, and all Democrats opposed.