The state House voted Monday to approve a bill that authorizes $1.7 billion in new state borrowing, a normally routine piece of legislation that was held up as lawmakers haggled over state spending and the way that economic development projects are approved.
The 119-75 vote came more than six months after the Capital Budget Act passed the Senate unanimously.
Afterward Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, said on the House floor that the state needed to make payments and maintain its bond rating, but he hoped to work with the Corbett administration to cut overall debt.
Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget secretary, Charles Zogby, warned in a letter The Associated Press obtained last week to a key House Republican that failure to approve the bill soon would result in layoffs for thousands of construction workers and damage to the economy.
The bill allocates $270 million in redevelopment money through the Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program, known in Harrisburg as RCAP.
It also supports $935 million in spending for buildings and structures, $412 million for transportation and bridges, $10 million for furnishings and equipment for new construction and $35 million for flood control. The Pennsylvania Constitution mandates annual passage of a capital budget “for the ensuing fiscal year.”
The bill was sent to Corbett’s desk for his signature.
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