A funny thing happened in the House Republican caucus on the way to the passage of the state's $28 billion General Fund budget Wednesday. All the Republican leadership voted for the bill, while 80 percent of the rank-and-file members did not.

The controversial measure, relying on more than $1 billion in unsecured funding, passed by a vote of 117-84. One hundred one of 104 Democrats voted for the measure, along with 16 Republicans, including all seven members of the House Republican leadership. Leaders are elected by the members of the caucus.

Eighty-two rank-and-file Republicans voted against the measure.

"Frankly, this budget would look very different if Republicans held the House, but we don't," House Minority Leader Sam Smith (R-Punxatawney) said in a prepared statement. He also bemoaned the major problems with the budget.

The Republican House leadership team is comprised of Mr. Smith and minority whip Mike Turzai (Allegheny), caucus chair Sandra Major (Susquehanna), appropriations chair Bill Adolph (Delaware), caucus secretary Jerry Stern (Blair), caucus administrator Merle Phillips (Northumberland) and policy committee chair Stan Saylor (York).

Just prior to the budget vote, the Republicans held a closed caucus where their leaders explained why they were going to support the budget, said state Rep. Doug Reichley (R- Lehigh). The rank-and-file were then left to to decide for themselves, he said.

What did the leaders say in the meeting?

"That's an internal caucus matter," Mr. Reichley said. He added it would be unfair to characterize the meeting as leadership telling the rank-and-file they would be voting for the budget regardless of what 80 percent of the Republican membership thought.

State Rep. Curt Schroder (R-Chester) put out a press release Thursday explaining his "no" vote, calling the budget unbalanced and said it "relies on funding that will never materialize." He was referring primarily to $850 million in supplemental Medicaid funding (FMAP) from the federal government that has yet to be approved by Congress. He also criticized the inclusion of $65 million of WAMs ("Walking Around Money") used by lawmakers to reward allies with special project funding.

State Rep. Curt Schroder (R-Chester)

Also undecided and not passed is a tax of unknown magnitude on natural gas extraction in the state. Gov. Ed Rendell has promised the tax will be in place by Oct. 1.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler)

"This budget continues the travesty of state government spending beyond its means and spending more money than it has. It is part of an agreement predicated on additional borrowing and future tax increases. It is a raw deal for taxpayers," Mr. Schroder said.

Less delicate in his remarks was state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler), who said, "I think the leadership sat down in their behind closed doors meetings and they said they didn't like the negative PR from the late budget last year. They decided they needed to minimize the public relations impact from not getting the budget passed on time.

"I think many of us were blindsided when (appropriations chair Bill) Adolph stood on the floor and announced his support of the budget last night.  We weren't aware of the agreement they had made with the Democrat leadership to support the budget," Mr. Metcalfe said.

In the caucus meeting before the final vote, Mr. Metcalfe said leadership, "...took us up to caucus and our leadership explained the decision to support the budget.  They said it gave them a seat at the table for the negotiations.

"I think the voters have to hold every rank-and-file member accountable for election of a leader who goes against the majority opinion of the caucus," Mr. Metcalfe said.

"I think ultimately we have to see some or all or these leaders challenged.  Ideally it would be nice to replace all the leaders who make such irresponsible decisions," Mr. Metcalfe added.

Calls to Mr. Smith and Mr. Turzai seeking comment on the leadership question and budget approval were not returned.

More than 30 House Republicans put out news releases following the budget vote decrying the new budget and the philosophy of governance it represents.

By Jim Panyard
Thursday, July 1, 2010
URL http://paindependent.com/todays_news/id.4233,css.print/blog_detail.asp