A group of state lawmakers unveiled a plan Tuesday that state Rep. Matt Gabler, R-DuBois, says would fund the state’s spending plan without the need to borrow money or raise taxes.

But that proposal, which could be voted on in the House of Representatives next week, is one that state Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, has his reservations about.

“I am concerned about some of the assumptions being made in this proposal and whether or not the funds identified are already committed to another purpose,” he said. “More details are necessary to protect against any unintended consequences for the initiatives these funds support and for the taxpayers.”

Gabler said he believes that lawmakers owe it to taxpayers to look at all options beyond borrowing and before entertaining the idea of raising taxes.

“The fact that state agencies are sitting on reserve funds means that we as elected officials have an obligation to consider those funds before demanding more money from taxpayers,” Gabler told The Era on Tuesday. “There are details that I believe need to be worked out with this plan, but the concept is exactly the sort of thinking that will enable taxpayers to keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets.”

In a prepared statement, the group stated that taxpayer dollars were discovered in the state budget in special government accounts with high, unused balances.

“Some of the 218 accounts we inspected are dormant and have not been drawn down in recent years. Tapping these accounts is not a new concept,” the group stated. “Each revenue source was thoroughly vetted through the new Treasury Transparency Portal, House Appropriations Committee staff, House legal staff and the governor’s own budget documents. The conclusion of this long process is that there appears to be sufficient resources in the special accounts to balance this year’s budget.”

However, the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, a self-described non-partisan policy research project, disagrees, saying that the spending plan today fails to find a solution for the long-term structural disparity between expenditures and revenues.

“Even if every fund transfer proposed by the Republican back-benchers today were Constitutional and legal, and even if they had no impact on the commitments made by the General Assembly to provide funding for public purposes, this one-time transfer will provide almost no recurring revenues to support the state’s on-going commitments,” the center said in a prepared statement.

Using money from those programs will result in cuts to programs, said J.J. Abbott, press secretary for Gov. Tom Wolf.

Abbott pointed to taking $357,000,000 from the Public Transportation Trust Fund, $100,000,000 from the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and $50,000,000 from the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund.

“There is no way around it. Taking funds from 9-1-1 centers and volunteer firefighters means less funding to improve public safety response in local communities,” Abbott said. “Shifting money from public and multimodal transportation sets back progress in municipalities small and large across Pennsylvania.”