I could hear the exasperation in Mario Civera’s voice.

The longtime state representative from Upper Darby called me from Harrisburg to let me in on a little news – the much ballyhooed deal announced just a week before to end this state budget farce was crumbling.

And Civera made it clear who was to blame. Democrats were changing the deal, shifting the agreed-upon taxes.

Civera had visited our office about a month ago to talk about the budget. At that time he indicated that he was having difficulty trying to figure out exactly what Gov. Ed Rendell was trying to accomplish, and that in general Democrats did not seem to have much of a sense of urgency on the budget.

Now, it appears Democrats can’t even agree among themselves what to do.
Rendell had signed off on the budget deal, which included very unpopular moves to start taxing small games of chance, as well as tickets sold to concerts, theater and admissions to museums.

But on Friday Democrats started shifting the sands again. Even Rendell came forward on Saturday to admonish those in his own party for going back on the budget deal.

Let’s make something clear. Nobody likes tax hikes. But in the worst economy since the Great Depression, and the state looking at a $2.5 billion spending gap, it was clear some tough choices were going to have to be made. Rendell made it equally clear that education was off limits for cuts.

That didn’t leave a lot of wiggle room.

The House spent much of yesterday debating table games, another move being made in attempts to bring in more revenue.

The budget appears now to be at least a week away.

The entire state budget process, for the most part something of a joke in that it never happens by the July 1 deadline, has now morphed into something a lot uglier.

Our representatives and senators are now 90 days into this thing, and they’re still playing with the numbers.

Civera is right to be exasperated. He should be something else, along with every other elected official in Harrisburg. That would be embarrassed.