An Associated Press article in Tuesday's Butler Eagle reporting on Pennsylvania's growing fiscal nightmare predicted another tough budget process as the Legislature and Rendell administration decide what to do to address the situation.

Through the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, the state had recorded a $1.1 billion deficit, up from $720 million at the end of March. There are fears that the shortfall could reach $1.5 billion by the end of the fiscal year.

But everyone who read the entire article should have been troubled by what they read in the last paragraph, specifically, "(Gov. Ed) Rendell and legislators haven't yet begun serious budget negotiations for the budget year that starts July 1."

With less than two months to go to complete a 2010-11 spending package, if the constitutionally mandated June 30 budget-passage deadline is to be met, lawmakers and the governor haven't gotten serious yet.

Of course, the prospect of missing the budget deadline is nothing new in the minds of people familiar with last year's 2009-10 budget debacle — and the budget-preparation processes throughout Rendell's two gubernatorial terms that have made a mockery of the deadline.

But it must be acknowledged that Rendell hasn't been the only culprit in the failures to get an on-time budget. Republicans in control in the Legislature haven't gone out of their way to work cooperatively and to compromise with Democrat Rendell to resolve differences.

Rendell's 2010-11 budget proposal totals $29 billion. Challenging the practical reality of that figure are corporate tax collections running 10 percent behind expectations, sales tax receipts 5 percent behind projections, and personal income tax collections lagging by 3 percent.

Despite the big budget fiscal hole, state taxpayers shouldn't fear the prospect of an increase in the personal income tax. In this election year, there won't be one, just like there wasn't for the current fiscal year, despite the big budget crunch the state was facing last year at this time.

Some of Rendell's revenue-enhancement suggestions for the coming year are sound and should not be brushed aside in a knee-jerk reaction by either Republican or Democratic lawmakers. They include:

n Implementing "combined reporting," also referred to as ending the "Delaware loophole." The loophole occurs in the case of some large corporations that avoid paying Pennsylvania taxes by setting up subsidiaries based in Delaware. Rendell says ending the loophole could bring in $66 million to the state's coffers.

n Enacting a first-time tax on the sale of cigars and smokeless tobacco — a tax Rendell estimates could bring in $41 million in new revenue. This state is the only one that doesn't tax smokeless tobacco and only one of two — Florida is the other — that doesn't tax cigars.

n Joining most other states with Marcellus Shale that have placed a severance tax on natural gas pumped from the shale areas. Such a tax in Pennsylvania could raise $160 million annually.

n Transferring $150 million from the fund that pays out state tax refunds; the fund has a surplus that would permit such an infusion into the state's general fund.

n A contribution by the Legislature of some of its reserve money, which is expected to be about $180 million by the end of June. That reserve fund sometimes is referred to as a legislative slush fund; it allows the Legislature to keep its staffers working in case of a budget impasse such as last year's, which encompassed 101 days.

While those suggestions wouldn't resolve the state's fiscal morass, they would make a significant dent. So would Rendell accepting the idea of Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who said Rendell should scale back the $355 million in additional spending for public education that the governor has put on the table for next fiscal year.

The state's public school districts, which are overly generous in handing out contract deals to teachers and administrators and allowing those employees to get away nearly scot-free from contributing to their expensive health care plans, should have to tighten their belts like most other people and businesses in the state — preferably by rejecting employee contracts that are unrealistic when compared with other segments of the economy.

Rendell's proposal merely encourages more of the same disregard for the economic realities others face.

Otherwise, layoffs and program cutbacks remain an obvious source of additional budget money, and, in terms of layoffs, every lawmaker's staff should be required to shed at least one staff member, with the savings — however insignificant they might seem within the total scope of state spending — going into the state's general fund to help address the shortfall.

David Fillman, exective director of Council 13, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), was reasonable in reminding lawmakers that it's time for the 253-member Legislature to cut its staff or find more money for the budget. The union endured three waves of layffs last year.

The governor's office staff also is not beyond worker reductions.

Making any of these proposals a reality will involve serious discussion between lawmakers and the governor and, as Tuesday's Associated Press article pointed out, such discussion has yet to begin.

That means lawmakers and the governor again are being irresponsible in terms of this important annual task.

It is not a situation that the state's voters should deal with kindly when they go to the polls.