#PAGov: Remember When Tom Corbett Stumped on “On Time Budgets” & “No Deficits?”

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane…

Luke Bernstein, then a 32-year-old deputy chief of staff and former executive director of the state Republican Party, was writing 11 pages of “Internal Talking Points” that staff could tout at the gala:

Corbett passed an on-time budget that “focuses on cutting spending” to plug a $4.2 billion deficit with no state tax increases.

•Corbett got school districts to control funding by limiting their ability to raise local taxes without referendums.

•Corbett helped the gas industry grow through his “jobs friendly” Marcellus Shale proposal.

Those results, Bernstein wrote, made Corbett far more successful than his contemporaries in other states and his predecessors.

And this little nugget from Tom Corbett’s latest budget address?

For our part, we set out to revive the economy of this state, with sound budgeting and spending discipline. I have submitted, and you have passed, three balanced budgets – on time.

We addressed our state’s fiscal problems by eliminating the deficit, and without adding to the fiscal problems of our citizens by raising their taxes.

 Oops…

Pennsylvania — Pennsylvania’s state Senate majority leader says he’s telling rank-and-file Republican senators to prepare to work in the Capitol into July on a $29.4 billion budget plan whose deficit seems to grow by the day.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi said Monday that it’s unlikely a new state budget will be approved before the fiscal year ends June 30. Lawmakers reconvened with two weeks left in the fiscal year amid closed-door work by Republicans on the budget.

Gov. Tom Corbett is keeping a low profile and isn’t saying how he would close the nearly $2 billion potential budget gap.

His spokesman says the Republican governor won’t sign a budget bill until lawmakers pass legislation to restructure the state’s public employee pension systems and liberalize the sale of alcoholic beverages in Pennsylvania.

So do yall remember the times when Governor Tom Corbett has been stumping on signing “on-time” budgets and eliminating billion dollar deficits?

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