HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Even as the Legislature prepares to vote on a $28.2 billion budget that draws heavily on one-time dollars, Senate officials say a $1 billion deficit could pile up in the next 12 months and force additional cuts or tax increases.The foundering national economy that slowed state tax collections ripped a large hole in the spending plan that Gov. Ed Rendell originally proposed in February. But budget negotiators tapped surpluses and postponed certain payments to free up more than $500 million that helped avert deeper spending cuts in the fiscal year that started Tuesday.
Sen. Gibson E. Armstrong, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he expects a deficit at the end of the fiscal year of between $800 million and $1.2 billion.
If that should materialize, the Rendell administration can put off hiring, scrounge cash that is sitting unspent in state accounts or dip into the state's main emergency fund, nicknamed the "rainy day fund," said Armstrong, R-Lancaster.
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