HARRISBURG -- Backing away from a threat to furlough 25,000 state workers July 1 if no budget is passed, Gov. Ed Rendell said Tuesday he would instead support a bill to use money from the state's rainy day fund to pay salaries, if necessary.
With a few adjustments, Rendell said he would sign legislation amended by the House Appropriations Committee to use about $20 million from the savings account to pay a week's worth of salaries and buy time if there's a budget impasse in the Legislature. By law, the state budget must be in place by June 30. Last year, lawmakers approved a budget July 17.
"If we were very close (on a budget agreement), I might do what I did last year for a couple of days and not furlough," said Rendell, who last year furloughed so-called "nonessential" workers for one day on July 9 and then canceled the furloughs when he said legislative leaders agreed in principle to a state spending plan.
It's likely that public school funding will become a friction point in budget negotiations. A Senate Republican budget bill primed for floor debate today would cut the $28.3 billion budget Rendell proposed by about $400 million.
The House committee, chaired by Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, amended a bill passed by the Senate that would classify all state workers as "essential," in an effort to avoid furloughs. The amendment proposed dipping into savings to pay workers, and using money from the rainy day fund for other purposes. But House Democrats took the bill off the floor, angering Republicans.
"We should not worry about furloughs today. We should solve the budget problem today or tomorrow or the next day, and then there will not be any furloughs," said Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene County.
In a letter to state workers June 6, Rendell's Secretary of Administration Naomi Wyatt said: "In the absence of a signed budget by June 30, we are required by law to begin budget furloughs at 12:01 a.m. on July 1."
She said Rendell moved up the date because of increased concern the federal government would impose fines for letting people work without appropriating money to pay them.
Rendell yesterday said Evans' bill needs to be modified, because he would oppose taking the entire $724 million balance from the rainy day fund for general state spending as the bill proposes.
Rendell said an unspecified portion of the fund could be used for education expenses, if the Legislature cuts his proposed basic education subsidy.
The savings fund was set up to help in periods of economic downturns.
Stephen Miskin, a spokesman for House Republicans, warned of a "rainy day fund raid."
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