{"id":1272,"date":"2011-01-10T12:58:59","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T17:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1272"},"modified":"2011-01-10T12:58:59","modified_gmt":"2011-01-10T17:58:59","slug":"barrar-2011-budget-choices-could-lead-to-unhappy-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=1272","title":{"rendered":"Barrar: 2011 budget choices could lead to unhappy voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight-term state rep. says spending cuts may not prove popular as lawmakers seek to close $5B gap<\/strong><\/em><\/span>
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By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span>
\nAsk a public official, virtually any public official, and almost all will tell you the same thing: 2011 is going to be a challenging year. But few others are looking at the difficult mix of problems and expectations that accompany local members of the state legislature \u2014 a little more than a week before a new governor takes office and Pennsylvania must grapple with as much as a $5 billion deficit.<\/p>\n

Steve Barrar (R-160), now in his eighth term in the house and the state representative for Chadds Ford, Birmingham and Pocopson in the Unionville area, says he feels it very acutely. With his party, Republican, taking control of the state house and inaugurating Tom Corbett as the new governor on Jan. 18, Barrar said he\u2019s aware that people have an expectation that things will get done in Harrisburg, and done quickly.
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State Rep. Steve Barrar (R-160)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt certainly puts all the pressure on the Republicans,\u201d he said in a lengthy interview last week. \u201cI think people feel that there\u2019s no reason for us not to get our agenda done. People expect us to get our house in order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two issues will be front and center: solving the budget deficit and creating jobs, Barrar said, tricky even if all branches of the state government are working in true lockstep, as opposed to the contentious battles of split government for the past eight years. While the Republicans do have a majority, both in the house and state senate, as well as an incoming governor, there\u2019s not always going to be complete agreement on how to proceed.<\/p>\n

With Corbett\u2019s declared position of not raising taxes, Barrar allowed that the incoming governor could be putting legislators in a difficult bind, forcing enough unpopular cuts in state spending, that there could virtually be something for everyone in terms of being angry with he and his colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how you come up with $5 billion in cuts,\u201d he said. \u201cThe new governor may be asking us to make decisions that could cost many of us in the legislature our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

That having been said, cuts are coming, although Barrar said he held out some hope that the steadily improving economy \u2014 the commonwealth collected some $191.2 million more in taxes in December, 2010 than was forecast \u2014 might reduce some of the deficit.<\/p>\n

Bottom line, though, he said all state spending is going to have to come under a microscope. Citing as much as $1 billion in waste, billing errors and fraud alleged by Auditor General Jack Wagner in the state\u2019s welfare program, Barrar noted \u2014 as have many others in the legislature \u2014 that may be the first target for savings. Of course, whether Wagner\u2019s figures are correct or not have been a matter of dispute between his office and outgoing Gov. Ed Rendell. Either way, Barrar said, the state\u2019s Welfare and Medicaid programs are going to get close scrutiny, as every dollar of waste and fraud found there is a dollar than won\u2019t need to be cut from other programs.<\/p>\n

Story continues next page<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Continued from previous page<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

After that, virtually everything is going to get a look, he said, starting with the cost of the legislature. \u201cWe\u2019re all being asked to look at our expenses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Even with one-party in control in Harrisburg, a $5 billion state budget deficit could mean stormy times in Harrisburg in 2011.<\/p><\/div>\n

Noting that is only small likely savings, he said he thought it was important that people see elected officials are willing to share in living with less.<\/p>\n

But, beyond the basics of protecting people, welfare and basic services, such as maintaining roads, every dollar the state currently spends has to be evaluated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to look at all of the programs,\u201d Barrar said.<\/p>\n

In addition to looking for savings in the welfare program, selling off the state liquor stores could be another option to close the budget gap. Although movements to privatize the state stores have failed, as union\u2019s representing the state employees working at the stores worked with social conservatives who oppose wider availability of alcohol have banded together to stop the effort, Barrar said he thinks the current financial environment might be enough to allow it to prevail this time.<\/p>\n

Supporters of privatization point to, in addition to the one-time windfall (which Barrar said he thinks should end up in a \u201clockbox\u201d and used only to generate recurring income for the state) from selling the stores, long-term continuing revenue streams from annual licenses as well as increased sales taxes, taxes now lost on out-of-state sales. That might be enough to finally get the idea past much of its opposition this time, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never been in a financial stretch like this before,\u201d Barrar said.<\/p>\n

And still, even if both of those plans work out, the state still will need to find more spending cuts unless the economy heats up in a much more rapid fashion than recent months \u2014 and most financial forecasts \u2014 seem to indicate as likely.<\/p>\n

That means program and spending programs \u2014 exactly the thing that has the potential to make for angry voters down the road.<\/p>\n

He identified the $9 million the state gives to public broadcasters \u2014 such as WHYY \u2014 and education funding for prisons \u2014 Barrar noted that it seems unfair to cut funding for public schools without cutting those funds first \u2014 as a couple of possibilities to cosndier as the budget process starts.<\/p>\n

[Editor’s Note<\/strong>] We’ll have more from the interview with Barrar later this week, including his plans as the new chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs and Emergency Preparedness committee and his non-budget related legislative priorities for 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight-term state rep. says spending cuts may not prove popular as lawmakers seek to close $5B gap By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com Ask a public official, virtually any public official, and almost all will tell you the same thing: 2011 is going to be a challenging year. But few others are looking at the difficult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[65,15,39,10,30],"class_list":["post-1272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-barrar","tag-birmingham","tag-chadds-ford","tag-pocopson","tag-state-representative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}