Corbett puts focus on budget crisis

Dealing with a looming budget crisis will be the next governor's first job, Attorney General Tom Corbett said Thursday.

"We've got to get the budget under control," Corbett said after speaking to about 90 people in the Duquesne Club, Downtown, during one of four annual meetings of the Financial Industries Network. The group is a forum for more than 200 executives and financial officers.

Since 2002, the state budget increased from $22 billion to $28 billion, double the rate of inflation, Corbett said. With an approaching pension crisis, the loss of federal stimulus money after next year and the continuing rise of health care costs -- particularly Medicaid -- it will take time to scale back the budget to a sustainable level, he said.

"The increase didn't happen in one year. We're not going to be able to cut it back in one year," Corbett said.

Corbett of Shaler is running for the Republican nomination for governor against state Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks County, and York Republican Robert Allen Mansfield. The party's state committee will vote on endorsing one of the candidates at its meeting in Harrisburg Feb. 13.

To compete in a global economy, the state needs to rely more on its universities, energy reserves like the Marcellus Shale natural gas deposit and businesses, Corbett said. State government should be scaled back, he said.

"We need to be a leader among nations now. We have gone global," Corbett said.

Corbett said spending cuts should be targeted at the state Legislature, including reductions in the 3,000 staffers who support 253 lawmakers, per diems given to lawmakers every day they're in session and the number of Capitol television studios. The General Assembly operates four, one for each caucus, he said.

The Legislature should return to a part-time body, and pass biennial budgets, which offer more stability than the annual wrangling that has in recent years resulted in lawmakers flouting the constitutionally mandated budget deadline, Corbett said.

He predicted Legislature-controlled grants, known as walking-around money, would be eliminated in the next budget, due at the end of June.

"If they don't, they're making a big mistake," Corbett said.

It's too soon to say when the state could cut taxes and reduce its budget to be more in line with 2002's budget, adjusted for inflation, he said.

"We have to see what (the Legislature does) this year," Corbett said.