ANALYSIS Uncompromising Rendell continues to push his plan
Pennsylvania's governor has yet to secure the approval of state lawmakers.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- The waning weeks of the fiscal year that ended June 30 featured a parade of news conferences by interest groups professing to support Gov. Ed Rendell's plan to lower property taxes and boost school funding and economic development.
To counter opponents' claims that widespread support for his "Plan for a New Pennsylvania" is lacking, Rendell touted glowing testimonials of groups ranging from farmers to the AFL-CIO to school superintendents.
Rendell claims to have garnered roughly 50 endorsements of his plan, which includes $559 million to provide full-day kindergarten to all school districts, preschool programs in the poorest districts, and reduction of class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, among other initiatives. Yet with the new fiscal year about to enter its second week, the administration has yet to secure the approval of state lawmakers. And not surprisingly, Republican leaders who control the Legislature are less than enthused about Rendell's campaign.
"He's choosing no negotiations, but he is choosing to get his face on TV. That seems to be what's more important to this governor," House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin complained after the most recent news conference in the Capitol Rotunda.
An extension?
Republican leaders have left open the possibility of extending the session well into July to work out a compromise. But so far, Rendell has not indicated how far he would be willing to go. For his part, the governor sees no need to get directly involved in budget talks until legislative leaders and the administration are close to an agreement.
Asked at that same news conference how soon that would happen, Rendell said: "I don't have the foggiest idea. It's my hope that we're close."
The resulting standoff creates an interesting clash of strategy between the legislative and executive branches, said Michael Young, a retired political science professor at the Penn State University campus in Harrisburg who runs a polling and opinion-research firm.
Republican legislative leaders have traditionally rattled their partisan sabers publicly while working out their differences in private, but Rendell "seems to be more swinging for the fences and unwilling to sit down because he's not going to get much of what he wants," Young said.
"It's almost as if two teams have showed up to play a big game, and one team thought it was a baseball game and the other thought it was a football game," he said.
No urgency
At the moment, there is no sense of urgency to pass any education funding and economic development plan.
Lawmakers already passed a spending plan Rendell presented in March that preserves basic services, and although the governor vetoed $4.2 billion in education spending to keep the school funding debate alive, both sides agree that school districts are in no immediate danger as along as that debate doesn't drag too far into August.
For all their allegations of gubernatorial indifference, GOP leaders have characterized the lack of action as no more than a lull in negotiations.
"We're not at a stalemate, because we haven't talked enough to be at a stalemate. We're not at loggerheads," House Majority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, said earlier in the week.
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is among the other groups that have officially endorsed the plan. Although PSBA has constantly lobbied for changes to the state's school funding formula, no matter who has been governor, spokesman Tim Allwein said he is unsure whether the endorsements of Rendell's plan will mobilize legislators to vote for it.