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sept2109budget

An interactive timeline of Pennsylvania's budget stalemate and resolution. Related article: Funds from state drop in new budget

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell approved a $27.799-billion budget on Friday, 101 days after the June 30 deadline.

The bill, House Bill 1416, passed 107-93 in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Wednesday and 42-7 in the Senate on Friday.

“While the budget I have signed today is late, it’s a responsible budget, given the economic condition of the nation and the state,” Rendell said in a press release. “The budget that reached my desk meets the threshold I established for recurring revenue, and does it without increasing broad-based taxes like income or sales tax.”

With the approval of this budget, the state will begin to distribute payments to school districts, counties, and social service organizations, which have been waiting for state funding for more than three months.

The budget includes $2.6 billion in federal stimulus funds, draws heavily from the state’s Rainy Day Fund, levies taxes on casino table games and increases the cigarette tax by 25 cents, among other measures.

“Funding for most state services was frozen or cut, with the cost of running prisons and health care for the poor and disabled being two exceptions,” according to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center’s web site. “Federal fiscal stimulus money was used to fund both of those areas, supplementing reduced state funding.”

The reason it took the Senate several days to approve the budget after the House did so was because government procedures require lawmakers to consider the bill for three consecutive days, according to PBPC Communications Director Christopher Lilienthal.

House Bill 1531, the budget’s companion revenue and tax changes bill, passed in the House by a vote of 102-96 on Wednesday and awaits Rendell’s approval.

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