For Immediate Release
July 24, 2009
Contact: Nathan Flood
717-787-4420
Back

Brubaker to Introduce Legislation to Improve the Budget Process 

HARRISBURG - Sen. Mike Brubaker (R-36) announced today that he will introduce legislation to improve the budget process and ensure future budgets are approved before the start of each fiscal year.

Brubaker's legislation would set a timeline for action on specific budget items and include penalties for failure to meet these deadlines. The proposal would establish deadlines for revenue estimates to be reported to the General Assembly and deadlines for each chamber to pass a balanced budget. The bill would establish penalties for the General Assembly and the Executive Branch for failing to meet these requirements, including (but not limited to) forfeiture of pay.

Brubaker began circulating a co-sponsorship memo this week to legislators to garner support for the legislation in the General Assembly.

"This is the seventh straight year that Pennsylvania has begun the fiscal year without a budget in place, and it is abundantly clear that the process is fatally flawed," Brubaker said. "The protracted budget process this year has been an embarrassment, and my legislation would hold the governor and members of the General Assembly accountable for failing to pass a timely budget in the future."

Brubaker pointed out that while the Senate passed a budget in May, the House of Representatives did not vote on a spending plan until the third week of July, three weeks into the new fiscal year.

"There is no reason to delay action until July on a budget plan other than to manufacture a crisis that puts our state workers, social services and school districts at risk," Brubaker said. "That blatant disregard for our duties in order to gain political leverage represents politics at its very worst, and we should take immediate action to prevent this sort of willful budgetary negligence in the future."