Many are wondering what the effect of Friday's budget deal is on legal services.  On Friday, September 18, the Governor and three of the four legislative caucuses announced that a Pennsylvania budget deal had finally been made, so that a state budget could be adopted. The caususes that are part of the deal are the Senate Republicans and Democrats as well as the House Democrats.  The House Republicans were not part of the deal and were not part of recent negotiations because of their opposition to raising revenues, even to the extent of the modest budget deal, and because they advocated further cuts in spending.

For legal services, we are told that the budget deal includes funding at last year's level.  As readers of my last blog posting know, this is very good news for us, considering that some budget proposals (included the Senate-passed budget) would have zeroed out the state appropriation for legal services.  But I have to be careful in announcing this news.  No budget printout is yet available and until we can see this in writing, it is hard to be completely confident.  My information comes from a highly reliable source.

What's Next?

Well, there two things still of vital interest to us.  First, the budget deal has to be reduced to writing, first in the form of a spreadsheet for viewing by legislators and by others, and second to be incorporated into a legislative Act, to be voted on.  To adopt a budget, the General Assembly must actually pass a number of related bills, such as ones to implement taxing authority.  And since this deal includes licensing of table games, the legislative package will be significant.  Hopefully, all this will be ready for action within a matter of a few days.

Second, we continue to advocate for passage of the filing fee bill, HB 1861.  Hopefully, this will be part of the budget package.  I've discussed this bill previously, regarding its effects on legal services.  The temporary filing fee created by this legislation will help tremendously to make up for most of the IOLTA funding cuts that have resulted from the combination of unprecedented interest rate drops and a slowdown in the real estate market.  We continue to support this legislation, which has already been passed by the House.  We look to the Senate to approve the fee, which will aid the Courts, legal services, District Attorneys, and domestic violence programs.  We oppose efforts to change the content of the bill or to offer a fees through any different bill.  Use of a different bill would start the process over and we would see this as an effort to eliminate legal services from the plan.