Lawmakers Back to Work on State Budget

Mayor: City needs House Bill 1828 to pass to avoid major layoffs

By DANIELLE JOHNSON

Updated 9:04 PM EDT, Mon, Sep 14, 2009

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Pennsylvania legislative leaders are planning to resume discussions about the state budget, three days after announcing a tentative deal.

The six-member conference committee is scheduled to take up the state budget in a meeting Monday afternoon.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said the city desperately needs House Bill 1828 to pass to avoid major layoffs and cutbacks, according to kyw1060. The bill would allow Philadelphia to raise the sales tax and delay payments to its pension system.

Mayor Nutter said he may be forced to send out 3,000 layoff notices be the end of this week. Those layoffs would be effective on October 2nd.

"Friday, unfortunately if the bill isn't fully passed by the Senate and signed by the Governor, we will have send out layoff notices to upwards of 3,000 public employees and shutdown many of our departments and agencies. So this is a serious situation, and it has to be dealt with in a serious fashion, Mayor Nutter told kyw1060.

Governor Ed Rendell said Monday during a news conference that he plans to veto the nearly $28 billion plan -- which calls for higher business and cigarette taxes, legalization of table games such as poker at slots casinos and expanded drilling for natural gas on state-owned land.

Rendell says the numbers in the budget deal don't add up, and he's threatened to veto it.

House Republicans are also opposed, saying it spends too much and raises taxes.

Copyright Associated Press / NBC Philadelphia

First Published: Sep 14, 2009 11:26 AM EDT

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