Penna. House sends budget to Senate
HARRISBURG - One legislative chamber down, one to go.
After nearly four hours of debate Thursday, the House of Representatives voted, 120-81, to approve a proposed $27.65 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins Sunday.
The measure now heads to the Senate, which could vote on it as early as Friday.
Republicans who control both chambers have hailed the budget deal with Republican Gov. Corbett as a sensible and responsible spending plan in tough economic times that controls spending and does not raise taxes.
"You are part of the new way of governing," House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) told his colleagues Thursday, urging them to vote for the budget. "You are part of the solution."
Democrats countered that the proposal reflects what they contend are the GOP's misplaced priorities: new and continuing tax breaks for the business sector, while slicing tens of millions of dollars in funding for the needy.
One by one, they rose Thursday on the floor of the House to rail against the budget's call for nearly $300 million in tax cuts for businesses.
They also took aim at Corbett's controversial proposal to provide a tax credit to lure Shell Chemical L.P. to build a huge petrochemical refinery in Western Pennsylvania. Corbett and GOP legislative leaders struck a final deal on that tax credit Thursday: It calls for providing a credit of a nickel per gallon of ethane used by a qualifying refinery owner. The credit would begin in 2017 and last 25 years.
Democrats sought Thursday to juxtapose those tax incentives for businesses with the budget's roughly $84 million in cuts for an array of human-service programs for the mentally ill, the homeless, and people fighting alcohol and drug addictions.
The budget deal would also eliminate a cash assistance program that helps nearly 70,000 people, including the temporarily disabled, victims of domestic abuse, and recovering addicts.
"This is a big-business giveaway budget," said Rep. Joe Markosek (D., Allegheny), the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.
"My advice to Pennsylvanians, if this budget passes, is: Don't get old. Don't get sick. Don't try to educate kids. Don't be unlucky enough to be disabled," he said.
Rep. Michelle Brownlee (D., Phila.) put it this way: "This budget fails every person I took office to represent."
In all, the negotiated budget agreement contains no new taxes - in keeping with Corbett's campaign pledge - and increases spending about 1.5 percent over this year's plan.
It reverses all of the cuts that Corbett proposed making to state-related universities, including Temple and Pennsylvania State University, as well as to the 14 schools in the State System of Higher Education. It also puts back all of the $100 million that Corbett sought to cut in grants that school districts use to finance kindergarten and other early-childhood-education programs.
For public school classroom operations, the budget deal would increase funding slightly overall, although most of the extra money would be destined for financially struggling districts.
Every House Republican but one voted in favor of the budget Thursday. Eleven Democrats joined them.
Contact Angela Couloumbis at 717-787-5934 or acouloumbis@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @AngelasInk.
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By Mark Nootbaar June 29, 2012
$27.7 Billion 2012-13 Pennsylvania Budget Sent to Governor's Desk
The Pennsylvania state Senate passed a $27.7 billion plan for the fiscal year that begins in less than 36 hours.
Pennsylvania senators voted 32-17 on Friday on a Republican-penned $27.7 billion plan for the fiscal year that begins in less than 36 hours.
The budget plan has been savaged by Democrats as taking from the poor to give to the rich. It was defended by Republicans as appropriate and responsible. It now goes to Governor Tom Corbett for final approval.
The plan would increase spending by about 1.5%, primarily for health care for the poor and public employee pensions. It holds the line on taxes.
Meanwhile, it would create hundreds of millions of dollars in businesses tax reductions while slashing about the same amount from benefits for the poor, disabled, homeless or troubled.
Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa calls the Republicans’ elimination of a Depression-era cash benefit for poor, childless adults unfair and “mean-spirited.”
Pa. Senate OKs budget, Corbett's ethane tax credit
June 30, 2012
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A budget plan savaged by Democrats as taking from the poor to give to the rich but defended by Republicans as appropriate and responsive to taxpayers and businesses won final legislative approval Friday before it went to Gov. Tom Corbett to become law for the next 12 months.
Meanwhile, Corbett won overwhelming approval from the state Senate for his biggest legislative priority: Tax breaks designed to entice the construction of an integrated petrochemical industry in Pennsylvania.
The 32-17 vote in the state Senate on the Republican-penned $27.7 billion plan will likely help Corbett keep his pledge for the second year in a row to sign an on-time budget, although it went to his desk with barely 30 hours to spare.
Three Democrats voted with majority Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, who nonetheless called the elimination of a Depression-era cash benefit for poor adults who can't work "mean-spirited."
The 43-6 vote on Corbett's tax-credit plan sent the bill to the House for approval as Republican legislative leaders worked feverishly to write legislation and line up votes to tie down their end-of-session pact with Corbett.
But without enough House support cemented for Corbett's education agenda, lawmakers appeared certain to continue working into Saturday, the last day of the fiscal year when they traditionally depart Harrisburg for a two-month break.
The budget plan for the 2012-13 fiscal year that begins Sunday would increase spending by about 1.5 percent, largely for debt, pensions and health care for the poor, as well as to help fill a shortfall in the almost-finished fiscal year.
Meanwhile, it would cut businesses taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars, deposit around $350 million to $400 million into reserves and slash hundreds of millions of dollars from services for the poor, homeless, troubled and disabled.
Aid for public schools and universities would remain flat — a handful of public schools nearing financial collapse would see a little extra money — after absorbing more than $1 billion in cuts in the current fiscal year.
"This is the right budget for our residents and our job creators at this time," said Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, during floor comments. "It moves Pennsylvania in the right direction."
Democrats criticized what they view as tax giveaways to businesses at a time when the state is being stingy with its poor, schools and transportation network.
"It caters to business, not small business, but super-rich, foreign-owned companies to the detriment of our people," said Sen. Michael Stack, D-Philadelphia. "It has cuts that will force local property taxes increases and detrimentally affect programs and services for years."
Democrats won a month delay in the elimination of the General Assistance cash benefit until Aug. 1 so that the Department of Public Welfare can notify tens of thousands of recipients that they'll lose it.
Republicans characterized the elimination of the cash benefit — it costs about $126 million a year — as unavoidable in tough times, and Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland, said they did not do so with a "joyful heart."
But Democrats tore into their counterparts, saying the $200-a-month benefit is all that stands between homelessness, prison or emergency rooms for people who are seeking addiction treatment or are too sick or disabled to work.
"Why?" Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, asked repeatedly. "Why do we walk away?"
Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-Chester, said, "In war and in peace, we've always recognized that we're not going to let anyone be on the street."
More than half of the states have a General Assistance cash benefit, though two eliminated it last year and several others scaled it back, according to a December report by the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Looming over the debate is the spiraling cost of public employee pensions, which is projected by Corbett to rise from about $1.1 billion in the nearly finished fiscal year to $4.3 billion in five years.
The general appropriations bill was just one of several major pieces of budget-related legislation sought by Corbett before the spring legislative session ends.
Corbett failed to win House support for a plan to absorb seven different pots of aid for county-administered services into one block grant program. Rather, he settled for a "pilot" program that could involve up to 20 volunteer counties.
Many nonprofit groups that deliver the state's safety-net services opposed it for fear that mandated services, such as child-abuse investigations or court-ordered counseling, would drain much of the money.
Most of Corbett's education package still on hold
Posted: Saturday, June 30, 2012 7:00 am
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Most of Gov. Tom Corbett's four-pronged education agenda for promoting alternatives to public schools and overhauling teacher evaluations remained on hold Friday night as Republican leaders tried to smooth out last-minute wrinkles in hopes of sending lawmakers home for the summer on Saturday.
A closed-door GOP leadership meeting with Corbett bogged down over a bill to expand the state's role in the regulation of charter schools. The Senate abruptly recessed for the night shortly before 9 p.m. and the House followed suit about an hour later.
House Speaker Sam Smith and other leaders declined to talk with reporters after the meeting.
Drew Crompton, chief of staff to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, declined to reveal details but said he believed the most serious disagreements involved the charter-school bill.
Crompton said Republican leaders have been working "day and night" and that flare-ups over the wide-ranging education package were to be expected.
"This is an incredibly large bucket of education reform," he said.
Discussions about the charter bill continued behind the scenes throughout the day.
The Republican governor originally called for creating a state panel that would authorize new charter schools, taking that power away from local school boards. But a Senate Republican summary of the latest proposal suggests that he's unlikely to fully achieve that goal.
The proposal calls for transforming the present State Charter Appeal Board into a larger, independent panel whose jurisdiction would be limited to cyber-charter schools, regional charters involving more than four school districts, existing schools that transfer their charters to the state level and organizations that operate multiple charter schools.
Local school boards would continue to be the authorizers for charter and regional charter schools, although the state board would oversee appeals of charters rejected by the local boards.
The proposal also calls for a statewide committee to recommend ways to improve the funding formula for charter schools.
At an impromptu news briefing after an unrelated event earlier in the day, Corbett dismissed a question about whether he thought the proposal had been publicly vetted enough to become law.
"Charter school reform has been discussed many, many times over the last 18 months. This is nothing new. It's just getting into the wordsmiths' work of this and where they can come to agreement," he said.
Meanwhile, a bill to establish a process for identifying and responding to financially distressed school districts — including the potential appointment of an outside overseer to develop a recovery plan or a court-appointed receiver who would take over most of a school board's power — was already on it way to the governor's desk after winning House approval Thursday.
The other two proposals appeared poised for approval.
The Senate approved a bill that would broaden the scope of professional evaluations for teachers beginning in 2013-14 and for principals in 2014-15. It awaited House approval.
The bill would replace the current evaluations that are based solely on classroom observations by superiors. The new system would rely on those observations for half of the rating and the other half would be based on multiple measures of student achievement, including standardized test scores, classroom activities and quiz scores.
Also awaiting action is a proposed $50 million tax credit that would help low-income students transfer out of the state's worst schools — a condition that is an integral part of conventional school vouchers, a proposal for which stalled in the Legislature despite Corbett's support.
THE REST
The credit would be incorporated in the existing Educational Improvement Tax Credit program, whose 2012-13 appropriation also would be increased to $100 million from this year's $75 million.
That 11-year-old program rewards businesses that contribute money, property or services to nonprofit groups that provide scholarships to students from low- and middle-income families who transfer to private schools or public schools outside their home districts.
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