PENNSYLVANIA Rendell changes the face of lawmaking in state

The governor has given backbone to Senate Democrats.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- As a bill to authorize slot machines at the state's racetracks worked its way through back rooms to the Senate floor last week, lobbyists often found themselves in unfamiliar territory: the offices of Democrats.
Not only that, but one outspoken Philadelphia Democrat, Sen. Vincent Fumo, repeatedly reminded the Republican majority in the Senate this past week that something is different from the past eight years.
"You've got a new sheriff in town," he told them during a heated debate on a property tax bill.
In other words, Gov. Ed Rendell is changing the face of lawmaking in Pennsylvania, dominating the agenda with his proposals and finally giving Democratic legislative voices some bite with his threat of a veto.
One complaint
As conservative Republicans on the Senate floor Wednesday night sought to sink the slots bill, Sen. Gibson Armstrong of Lancaster County complained that he had received a copy of the 77-page document only the night before from a lobbyist who got it from a reporter.
The bill was introduced on the Senate floor as an amendment -- often the preferred vehicle for contentious legislation that may not have made it out of a Senate committee.
Bemused, Fumo quickly retorted that Armstrong nevertheless had received the document far sooner than Democrats would typically see Republican-sponsored amendments.
"I feel your pain," Armstrong deadpanned.
Democrats lost their last majority in either house of the General Assembly in 1995, when they watched what had been a seven-seat House majority disintegrate. That same year, Tom Ridge's election kicked off two terms of Republican governors, and the party has dominated Pennsylvania politics ever since.
As lawmakers have feverishly advanced bills before their traditional two-month vacation that is supposed to begin with the state's new fiscal year Tuesday, there has been little mistaking the backbone that Rendell has given Senate Democrats.
Fumo did practically everything last week except bang his shoe on the podium in the Senate chamber as he admonished Republicans trying to dismantle Rendell's plans.
"We're at the table now and we're not going away," Fumo told Republican colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee as they moved their economic revitalization plan to the full Senate. "And maybe you find that repulsive, but we're at the table."
Criticism for GOP
And on the Senate floor, he criticized Republicans for not seriously tackling the problem of rising property taxes through eight years of holding the governorship and majorities in both houses of the Legislature.
"Now we've got a Democratic governor who won't even give you your way," Fumo told Republicans.