PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — With Pennsylvania's budget one month overdue, Philadelphia labor leaders are calling on lawmakers in Harrisburg to end their stalemate over the state's spending plan.
"They're playing some sort of game of chicken where everyone is going to lose," Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO President Danny Bauder said at a news conference Thursday. Union leaders rallied at AFL-CIO headquarters, calling on state Senate Republicans to come to a consensus on a budget deal. Without a state budget, the union leaders said, education, health care and transportation services will suffer.
"Why are they taking forever? Pass the budget. Do your job!" said Unite Here Local 274 member Autumn Fingerhood. "Everybody is being affected by this, and we are not getting any answers."
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg compared the situation to missing the due date for your final paper by a full month and still not having more than the first two pages written — "That's where we are right now."
SEPTA has promised to cut nearly half of its service starting Aug. 24 without more state funding.
"Just this week, some of our drivers began picking their new routes for the fall," Transport Workers Union Local 234 Vice President Will Vera said. "Those schedules include 20% service cuts, and we're staring down at a threat of 25% more cuts next year."
Ryan Boyer, business manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, said regulating "skill games" on slot machine-like devices found in corner stores would generate revenue for mass transit.
"We're calling out those legislators that don't want to fairly tax an industry that is getting away with murder in the so-called skill games," Boyer said. "They need to pay their fair share so they can get regulated like everyone else, so we can make sure that people who are using those machines are of age and they're not addicted to gambling. And with that money, we can fund mass transit throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
With an Aug. 31 contract expiration looming, the lack of a state budget is slowing talks between the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the school district.
"It's been amicable so far. But I'm notoriously impatient and we're not moving quickly enough," Steinberg told KYW Newsradio.
The contract for SEPTA's largest union expires Nov. 7, and Vera said not having a state budget is affecting its negotiations as well.
"We're putting proposals on non-economic issues because we honestly do not know the length of the contract that we can speak on," Vera said.