Pennsylvania’s June 30 budget deadline is fast approaching.
    However, you wouldn’t know it from what is going on in Harrisburg as state lawmakers seemed more concerned with passing a toothless smoking ban than actually beginning negotiations on Gov. Rendell’s $28.3 billion spending plan.
    The legislators have had this budget proposal since February and the fact that only now are they beginning negotiations on that document is reprehensible.
    The state’s budget is a priority — mainly because of the fact that the furloughing of up to 25,000 state employees, which is a quarter of the state’s work force, would begin immediately if a state budget is not approved by the midnight June 30 deadline.
    And while the legislature deserves the lion’s share of the blame of this ongoing debacle, Gov. Rendell should also take his lumps as well.
    He presented a budget that 4.2 percent higher than last year — something that the Republican members of the legislature did not overlook — and that his proposal is relying on a $400 million surplus that is not expected to appear before June 30.
    What’s even worse is the cavalier attitude that is coming from the lawmakers in Harrisburg. They just don’t care if a quarter of the state’s work force is furloughed on July 1. If they did, this budget would have already been in place.
    But instead, the legislature — and the governor himself — cannot focus on the actual priorities of this state.
    In other words, it is business as usual in Harrisburg — and there is definitely no change in site.