Scarnati says Senate Rs have 'turned the boat' on state spending

MINNETONKA, Minn. -- In a brief interview with PolitickerPA.com, state Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Warren County) said Gov. Ed Rendell's administration is "winding down."

"As evidence, look at the cabinet secretaries that are leaving," Scarnati said, referring to the departure of Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty and Office of the Budget Secretary Mike Masch.

He added the staff dispersion isn't a slight against Rendell personally, just a reality of any elected official whose time in office is almost up. Rendell has two years left on his second term.

The remarks echo similar ones made by state Sen. Dominic Pileggi on Monday.

What, in Scarnati's eyes, does Rendell's dwindling power mean?

Don't count on the governor's final big initiative, his plan to prove health insurance to all the state's citizens, passing in the Senate anytime soon.

"What he's been putting out is not sustainable," Scarnati said. "We just can't afford those policies."

Scarnati and Pillegi took over the Senate in 2006, after which the Senate president said the GOP has managed to control spending requests from the governor.

"I think we not only have started to turn the boat, we have turned the boat," Scarnati said, who added that the kind of fiscal discipline showed by the Senate is critical to the GOP's brand in the state in the future.