Keep spending in check

Keep spending in check

Harrisburg Patriot-News: There is nothing magic or sacred about $27.3 billion. But there is a lot that is prudent and practical about that number.

So some members of the Pennsylvania Legislature want to spend more than that amount in the budget to be passed by June 30. They say that money from tax collections is flowing into the state treasury at a higher-than-anticipated rate, so the state should restore some of the cuts in Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget that was designed to deal with an estimated $5 billion shortfall by cutting most spending back to 2008-levels.

We don’t want Pennsylvania to spend more than $27.3 billion in this budget.

We do accept the sense in rearranging some of Corbett’s suggested line items. Some money can be put back into education, for example, if other money is taken away from welfare.

But Pennsylvania got into trouble during the good-fiscal-times administration of Gov. Tom Ridge, and deepened the trouble during the bad-times spending administration of Gov. Ed Rendell.

We support changes to Gov. Corbett’s proposed budget.

We oppose spending more than the prudent $27.3 billion budget target.