It's June 19. Do you know where you state budget is?

By Ben Waxman

The General Assembly has until June 30 to approve the budget. It's usually about now, 10 days before deadline, that the melodrama plays out in full: the governor proposes, the legislators stall; the governor threatens government shutdown, and finally, something gets done. Isn't there a better, smarter way to work?

At this point, one big barrier to Rendell's budget is the Republican-controlled Senate. Fiscally conservative senators, like Mike Folmer and John Eichelberger, have been criticizing the proposal as too large - they point to a 4.2% increase in overall spending. We asked representatives from two Harrisburg think tanks - Keystone Research Institute and the Commonwealth Foundation - who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, to weigh in on the four key Rendell proposals.

Their major points are in the chart below. Click on the chart to open a the full size version.

Ben Waxman covers budget issues for It's Our Money, a partnership between the Daily News and WHYY funded by the William Penn Foundation. To contact Ben with your thoughts on the state budget or any other taxpayer funded issues, email him at waxmanb (at) phillynews.com.

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