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A budget plan savaged by Democrats as taking from the poor to give to the rich but defended by Republicans as appropriate and responsive to taxpayers and businesses won final legislative approval Friday before it went to Gov. Tom Corbett to become law for the next 12 months.
The 32-17 vote in the state Senate on the Republican-penned $27.7 billion plan will likely help Corbett keep his pledge for the second year in a row to sign an on-time budget, although it went to his desk with barely 30 hours to spare.
Three Democrats voted with majority Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, who nonetheless called the elimination of a Depression-era cash assistance benefit for poor adults who can’t work “mean-spirited.”
The plan for the 2012-13 fiscal year that begins Sunday would increase spending by about 1.5 percent, largely for debt, pensions and health care for the poor, as well as to help fill a shortfall in the almost-finished fiscal year.
Meanwhile, it would cut businesses taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars, deposit around $350 million to $400 million into reserves and slash hundreds of millions of dollars from services for the poor, homeless, troubled and disabled.
Aid for public schools and universities would remain flat — a handful of public schools nearing financial collapse would see a little extra money — after absorbing more than $1 billion in cuts in the current fiscal year.
“This is the right budget for our residents and our job creators at this time,” said Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, during floor comments. “It moves Pennsylvania in the right direction.”
Democrats criticized what they view as tax giveaways to businesses at a time when the state is being stingy with the poor, schools and its transportation network.
“It caters to business, not small business, but super-rich, foreign-owned companies to the detriment of our people,” said Sen. Michael Stack, D-Philadelphia. “It has cuts that will force local property taxes increases and detrimentally affect programs and services for years.”
Democrats won a month delay in the elimination of the General Assistance cash benefit until Aug. 1 so that the Department of Public Welfare can notify tens of thousands of recipients that they’ll lose it.
During debate on a budget-related bill, Republicans characterized the elimination of the cash benefit as unavoidable in tough times, and Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland, said they did not do so with a “joyful heart.”
But Democrats tore into their counterparts, saying the $200-a-month benefit is all that stands between homelessness, prison or emergency rooms and people who are seeking addiction treatment or are sick or disabled.
“Why?” Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, asked repeatedly. “Why do we walk away?”
Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-Chester, said, “In war and in peace, we’ve always recognized that we’re not going to let anyone be on the street.”
More than half of the states have a General Assistance cash benefit, though two eliminated it last year and several others scaled it back, according to a December report by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Looming over the debate is the spiraling cost of public employee pensions, which is projected by Corbett to rise from about $1.1 billion in the nearly finished fiscal year to $4.3 billion in five years.
The budget bill was just one of several major pieces of budget-related legislation sought by Corbett as top GOP lawmakers raced to tie down agreements, write legislation and rally votes.
Corbett failed to win House support for a plan to absorb seven different pots of aid for county-administered services — for the homeless, mentally ill and disabled, neglected or abused children and drug and alcohol addicts — into one block grant program. Rather, he settled for a “pilot” program that could involve up to 20 volunteer counties.
Many nonprofit groups that carry out much of the state’s safety-net services oppose it for fear that mandated services, such as child-abuse investigations or court-ordered counseling, will drain much of the money.