Gov. Tom Corbett announced his proposed budget Tuesday afternoon.
Now it's the legislature's turn.
"This is the first step of the budget process," Rep. Kathy Rapp (R-65th) said Tuesday.
"We'll have many discussions on the governor's proposals and his line items," Rapp said. "We in the House will, in all likelihood, be putting together a budget."
The governor's proposal created a good starting point, according to Rapp. "I like some parts of the budget."
Rapp said the proposal would "provide for education, public welfare, and corrections," the "three biggest" expenditure areas in the state budget.
The governor proposed a package of human services dollars that would provide additional flexibility to the counties that administer those programs while reducing overall funding.
Similarly, the proposal calls for cuts to education block grants but providing a new block grant program that would provide more flexibility to the districts spending those dollars.
There are many cuts in the proposed budget and no tax increases.
Further, "We don't have the revenues that were projected," Rapp said. "There's no more spending because we're short on revenue."
Tax collections have fallen short of projections, leaving the state even farther behind.
Despite the shortfall compared to projected revenue, the state could be worse off.
Rapp said the state did not spend "the surplus that many projected" for the 2011-2012 year that never materialized.
"We're doing what we can to control costs for the state," Rapp said.
But there is still plenty of work to do.
"We need to have a lot of discussion in caucus," Rapp said.