State government has recently — and rightly — been under scrutiny, and the passage of this year's budget is no exception. There is a misconception in the media that somehow Gov. Ed Rendell handed out $360 million for the legislature to spend frivolously and secretly.

This is simply not the case. The complete 2007-08 state budget is available as a public record, and anyone can review line items that were increased, decreased, created or eliminated when compared with the 2006-07 budget.

How those numbers are achieved involves extensive negotiations between the four legislative caucuses and the governor, negotiations in which every party must compromise.

The final numbers are wide open for public scrutiny in House Bill 1286 (now Act 8A of 2007), which is available online at www.legis.state.pa.us.

In January, Senate Republicans urged the governor not to cut some specific programs — such as funding for hospitals, funding for a program that moves people off welfare and into gainful employment, and funding for regional cancer institutes — that are important to the state. In the past, Rendell cut these programs from his budget proposal so he could claim he contained spending, while knowing the legislature would reinsert these crucial and necessary programs back into the budget. (His predecessors used the same tactic, but to a lesser degree.)

Unfortunately, the governor ignored our plea for a more transparent approach to the budget, choosing his business-as-usual approach by removing these programs in his proposal. As part of the final negotiation of the budget, the governor agreed to cut roughly $225 million from his original proposal so that some of the programs could be restored.

The programs that get funded in the state budget are scrutinized every year through a series of Appropriations Committee meetings where both the Senate and the House question department secretaries. Most of these hearings are televised on PCN, as members ask whether or not the programs are effective, and look for ways to use taxpayer dollars more efficiently.

Working on behalf of Pennsylvania's citizens, Senate Republicans this year came forward publicly with clearly defined goals for the 2007-08 state budget. We stood together on four principles: no new taxes, a significant reduction in the growth of state spending, no gimmicks designed to hide the true cost to taxpayers, and passage of the budget on time. We achieved all of those goals, except for passage of the budget on time.

When the constitutional deadline of June 30 arrived and the budget was not passed, the Senate named members of a conference committee to work with the House and finalize the budget in public committee meetings. We urged the House to do the same; however, our request was ignored.

In the end, the budget was negotiated by legislative leaders and Rendell.

But most observers recognize that this year's process was dramatically more open and transparent to the public than previous years' have been. We refused to allow the governor to hold Pennsylvanians hostage in an effort to get his non-budget legislative agenda passed.

Next year, our priorities will remain the same. Fiscal restraint is imperative. State government must operate like any hard-working family by assessing Pennsylvania's financial situation, deciding what line items are important to moving Pennsylvania forward, and making the difficult decisions to do what is best for our state now and in the future.

State Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-9th, is the majority leader of the Pennsylvania Senate. Sen. Jane Orie, R-40th, is the majority whip.