July 01, 2007

Pens arena caught in budget squabble

The Pennsylvania state legislature missed its constitutional deadline for approving a state budget last night, and one of the sticking points is funding for a Pittsburgh Penguins arena. Gov. Ed Rendell has threatened to veto any budget that doesn't include $7.5 million year in funding for a Pens arena, among other items - and with the Senate president pro tempore Joe Scarnati saying he "doesn't see any rush" in passing arena funding, everything is at a standstill.

Penguins officials, as you might imagine, are getting publicly antsy, with team president David Morehouse warning, "If this legislative session ends without arena funding in place, the entire funding structure for the arena and the arena project would be in jeopardy." Democratic Senator Sean Logan went further, calling the impasse "disturbing" and saying if the arena bill needs to wait till September when the legislature is scheduled to come back into session, construction costs could go up and the "Pens will leave."

Apocalyptic language aside, it doesn't seem likely that things will be held up that long: The state budget needs to be passed soon one way or another, and even one leading Republican senator said she'd be fine with voting for the Pens arena bill once the budget is settled. Still, it makes for some nice drama in that cliched horror movie ending kind of way.