The new budget package contains nearly $3 billion in borrowing, representing an ultimate payback of close to $4.5 billion, she said.

“This may be one of the largest authorized borrowing plans in the state's history,” Brooks continued. “Although many of the projects to be financed with bond issues have merit, I think the state could have leveraged its resources more wisely this past year instead of spending $1.2 billion for a new soccer stadium near Philadelphia, a new hockey arena in Pittsburgh and convention center upgrades in Philadelphia. That money could have gone to needed projects like infrastructure improvements and energy strategies which would help decrease costs for the hard-working families across Pennsylvania.”

“Budgets are not just year-to-year spending plans,” she said. “Decisions we make now affect generations and budgets for years to come. We need to keep an eye on the long term, not just the 12 months ahead of us. If we don't, our residents could be saddled with tax increases in future years.”

“I could not support an irresponsible budget that has a potential $1 billion deficit,” said Roae, whose Sixth District includes Meadville and northern Crawford County.

He said the “plan assumes the Pennsylvania economy will grow at 3 percent this fiscal year and result in 3 percent higher tax collections. This past fiscal year only saw a 1.7 percent growth in tax revenue.

He said the entire $744 million Rainy Day Fund “may be depleted before the end of the fiscal year. Huge problems, tax increases, and cutbacks in government services could occur within the next several months,” said Roae.

“Subprime mortgages have been in the news a lot recently and I would consider this to be a subprime budget. No business owner, municipality or school district would pass a budget when they know they will run out of money before the end of the fiscal year.”

He said the new budget is cutting things so close, that even if revenue does increase 4 percent this year, there will be only about $5 million not spent at the end of the next fiscal year.

“It would be like planning a household budget for a whole year and only having $1 for unexpected expenses,” he added.

He said the state had “about $115 million of carryover this year for the budget, but would only have $5 million for the 2009-10 budget.

“The related bills we voted on today (Friday) have $2.525 billion in new borrowing and will result in increasing debt service for the next four years,” he said, noting that “will put even more pressure on finding the money to maintain state funding for education, medical assistance payments to hospitals, job training programs and other important government services.”