Non-Profits and the Budget

Four candidates for governor of Pennsylvania are split on whether or not the state should refund nonprofits who took out loans during last year’s 101-day budget impasse.
The gubernatorial hopefuls made their comments at a forum sponsored by the United Way.
When state funding to nonprofits and counties dried up last summer, many organizations took out large loans to pay their bills.
Democrats Dan Onorato and Joe Hoeffel say the state should fund those groups’ interest payments, but Auditor General Jack Wagner is more hesitant.

"Should we recoup those counties? Sure. If we could, yes. I’m not sure the state presently is in a fiscal condition to do that. Based on the serious financial challenges facing us, now, in the next budget."

Hoeffel says he’d stop all payments, if the state entered the new fiscal year without a spending plan.

"I won’t sign a temporary budget. I’ve seen this wreck the budget process in Harrisburg and in Washington. They don’t pass budgets on time in Washington. They sign—pass continuing resolutions, temporary budgets here. There have been seven straight late budgets. So no budget July 1, nobody gets paid."

Onorato criticized Governor Rendell for withholding funding from nonprofits during the 101-day budget impasse.

"And that’s what happened here. Because a lot of the other programs were funded. There was temporary budgets. There were payments being made to employees in other departments. And yet you have this department of human service bearing the political burden of this debate."

Republican Sam Rohrer says Pennsylvania government is running out of money, and may soon find itself in the same dire financial straits as California and other distressed states. Rohrer said the federal stimulus package did more harm than good.

"Because there’s two and a half billion dollars in this budget that will run out this year, that has to be made up. That’s the rub of where it goes from here. What should have done last year – spending reductions of about ten percent should have taken effect, and we’d be sitting here with a balanced budget."

All four candidates vowed to pass budgets by the July 1 deadline, if elected.
Republican Tom Corbett and Democrat Anthony Williams were both invited to the forum, but didn’t attend.

Dems Don't Endorse Candidate For Governor

Auditor General Jack Wagner won twice as many votes as any other gubernatorial candidate when Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party cast ballots for an official endorsement this weekend.
Although that wasn’t enough to win the party’s nod, Wagner is claiming victory.
A candidate needed two-thirds of the votes to win the Democratic Party’s endorsement, and Wagner didn’t claim that total.
But Wagner’s 153 votes from party officials was twice as much as Dan Onorato, who came in second with 76 tallies.
Wagner says it’s a moral victory.

"When you get the most votes in two ballots and it’s more than the majority, that tells me – and it’s spread out across Pennsylvania, that’s a signal that real people, common people, are supporting my candidacy. And that’s powerful."

Onorato says he’s not concerned ...
"You can’t look at who got what. You’ve got to look at, did they endorse here today? They didn’t. the state committee said leave it open. No one got the endorsement. It’s wide open, and now the most important vote is primary day."


Philadelphia Senator Anthony Williams, who’s mulling a run and didn’t initially plan on entering the endorsement balloting, came in third with 48 votes. Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel was eliminated in the first round of voting, and Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty wasn’t nominated.