Gov. Rendell, top assembly budget negotiators meet
HARRISBURG (AP) — Gov. Ed Rendell is meeting with lead negotiators from the House and Senate in an effort to resolve Pennsylvania’s month-old state budget standoff.
Talks at the governor’s official residence in Harrisburg began in the early afternoon today, as 33,000 state employees missed paychecks because of the standoff.
On his way in, House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans said he is hoping for a breakthrough in talks.
Public negotiating sessions by Evans and five other high-ranking lawmakers on Wednesday and Thursday collapsed without any discernible progress.
Rendell says if there’s no movement by Monday he wants the House to send him a budget bill that he can strip down with his line-item veto power.
That way state workers and some government vendors can get paid.