Pennsylvania awakes to partial state shutdown

HARRISBURG, Pa. – The state museums didn’t open Monday. State parks were closed to visitors at the height of the summer tourism season, and many state services were idle because of a government shutdown that kept about 24,000 workers off the job.

Gov. Ed Rendell shut down the Pennsylvania government late Sunday over a budget stalemate with the Legislature that partly hinges on his energy plan for the state.


…The centerpiece of Rendell’s energy plan would place a surcharge on electricity use for a fund for alternative energy programs and electricity conservation. Republican legislators and some Democrats oppose the surcharge and accused the governor of holding state employees hostage to force them to approve it.

“I can’t believe that a man who would call himself governor would do this to state employees,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, a Republican.

AP