A state budget was finally sent to Gov. Rendell's desk (Senate Bill 850), which passed with only a handful of negative votes in the House. However, the Governor chose to use his power of the line-item veto to "blue-line" all spending in the bill except that which is necessary to pay state workers. So this leaves much unresolved, and a lot or more intense negotiating is to come in the coming weeks and months. Senate Bill 850 was a relatively lean budget of $27.3 billion that held the line on taxes while providing a generous increase in basic education subsidies (11 percent increase per school district on average). To be continued...