Saturday, September 20, 2003
The governor vetoed more than $4 billion in education subsidies in March.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- The state House of Representatives unanimously rejected a package of tax proposals that Republican leaders put up for a vote in order to show that Gov. Ed Rendell will have to accept a scaled-down version of his education spending plan.
Majority Leader Samuel H. Smith, R-Jefferson, said Tuesday the measure he sponsored "embodies" a grab-bag of tax plans the governor presented to the Legislature in March to help finance his education and economic-development initiatives, including a 34 percent increase in the state's personal income tax, as well as increasing taxes on beer and cell phones. It was voted down 199-0.
Smith said afterward that he hoped to "reinvigorate" negotiations over the education spending. Rendell vetoed more than $4 billion in education subsidies in March to force lawmakers to consider initiatives such as early-childhood education and expanded tutoring programs.
No major spending bill has made it to Rendell's desk since his veto of the education funding, and each side has accused the other of being unwilling to compromise.
"I think this helps to define the upper limit [of spending]. It's not going to be $660 million for his education plan," Smith said.
Smith offered the proposal as an amendment to a bill that would have provided tax credits for firearms training courses. He said it would have generated about $2.6 billion in revenue.
Democrats' response
Several rank-and-file Democrats accused Smith of orchestrating the vote simply to embarrass Rendell and said they would oppose the legislation because it did not represent a final plan negotiated by the governor and legislative leaders that would link the revenue to specific programs.
"This is a joke. You're asking me to vote for a pig in a poke," said Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Luzerne. "It's an exercise in futility. It's an exercise in crass politics, and I reject it."
For his part, Rendell dismissed the vote as "political cover" during a news conference concerning a report on sexual misconduct in the ranks of the Pennsylvania State Police.
"It is not a real attempt to produce an agreement," he said.
Although Minority Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Greene, called the vote a "crazy exercise" that would predictably end in defeat, he also hoped it would renew the negotiations.
"I'm hopeful that within the next week or two, that the majority party will meet aggressively with Gov. Rendell and his emissaries, and we will be able to fashion a package around the budget that will be voted in this chamber in two weeks," he said.