HARRISBURG — A state budget that dumps billions in federal coronavirus money into savings, boosts spending on education and provides aid to nursing homes easily passed the Legislature Friday night. Gov. Tom Wolf’s office said he plans to sign it next week.
Supporters described it as a sensible approach that targets spending increases while setting aside a large contingency reserve for when federal stimulus ends in the coming years, but Democratic opponents decried what they saw as a missed opportunity to make significant economic and educational progress.
“It is not the kind of practice we should do, to keep squirrelling away money while we go begging to get things done,” said Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, who nonetheless supported the $39.8 billion general fund budget plan.
The House vote was 140-61, with a handful of the chamber’s most conservative Republicans joining dozens of the more liberal Democrats in voting against it. The Senate vote was 43-7.
Montgomery County Democrat Rep. Joe Ciresi was among those voting no, he said in a statement.
While seeing the inclusion of $4.8 million for local school districts as welcome progress, Ciresi said he voted no on the state budget Friday evening because he felt it failed to adequately use the state revenue surplus and the one-time American Rescue Plan federal funds available this fiscal year.
“With nearly $10 billion in funding available through the state revenue surplus and the American Rescue Plan, I truly believed we had an unprecedented opportunity to do so much good for Pennsylvanians through this budget,” said Ciresi, D-146th Dist.
“We could have prioritized fair funding for education, infrastructure and school remediation, small business relief, property tax relief and investment in job creation ... as our commonwealth continues to climb out of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Ciresi, though, said he is happy with parts of the budget, most notably the increases in funding that were included – especially the inclusion of $100 million in “Level Up” funding for schools.
The $100 million is earmarked for the state’s 100 poorest districts, partly in response to a lawsuit over school funding that will soon go to trial in Commonwealth Court.
House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre, said the money will “help lift people up in tough, challenging school districts,” while Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, called it “an acknowledgement of the struggles that our poor schools face.”
“This was a response to our continued advocacy alongside stakeholders and the community for fair funding and the commonwealth funding its share of education,” Ciresi said. “In addition to the $3.1 million in state funding and $1.7 million in federal funding for school districts in the 146th Legislative District, we also see significant federal funding for the Western Montgomery Career and Technology Center, the Pottstown Regional Public Library and the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.”
The breakdown of funding for local institutions in the passed budget is as follows, according to Ciresi:
- Perkiomen Valley School District: $565,245 ($425,999 in state; $139,246 in federal)
- Pottsgrove School District: $693,660 ($354,051 in state; $339,609 in federal)
- Pottstown School District: $2.5 million ($1.7 million in state; $853,499 in federal)
- Spring-Ford School District: $977,540 ($638,765 in state; $338,775 in federal)
- Western Montgomery CTC: $379,189
- Pottstown Public Library: $12,791
- Montgomery County Intermediate Unit: $902,474
Rep. Todd Stephens, R-151st Dist., said in a release:
- Wissahickon will receive $3 million.
- North Penn will receive $11.6 million.
- Hatboro-Horsham will receive $5.5 million.
- Upper Dublin will receive $3.1 million.
Rep. Craig Staats, R145th Dist., said Pennridge will receive $ 11.7 million, up 2.1%.
The budget pumps $279 million into transportation infrastructure and directs $280 million to nursing homes and similar facilities, both drawing from the federal pandemic money.
House GOP leaders highlighted the $2.5 billion added to the state’s rainy day fund and that much of the rest of the pandemic money was also unspent, calling it a way to prevent future tax increases. The budget contains no tax or fee increases.
Sen. Katie Muth, D-Montgomery, said the public will not be happy “when they find out that this money could have been pushed out in a historic, epic way, to invest in the people of Pennsylvania and it wasn’t.”
Among the budget legislations’ other provisions are a ban on the Department of Human Services creating new programs not expressly authorized by the General Assembly, a Republican effort to control costs at the agency. It also would end overtime regulations imposed by Wolf.
About two-thirds of the new spending is on human services, such as Medicaid, while budget makers also had to use $1 billion-plus to fill a hole in the prisons budget created when the state used federal money to cover costs in that department this year.
With federal money and $2.4 billion in coronavirus money in 2020-21, and including additional spending approved later in the year, the current year’s budget is about $39.8 billion, according to Republican staff on the House Appropriations Committee.
By comparison, the 2021-22 spending deal passed Friday amounts to $38.6 billion in the general fund, along with $1.2 billion in federal support that mostly pays Medicaid costs and about $1 billion on coronavirus relief, for a total of $40.8 billion, or an increase of roughly 2.6%.
The budget deal did not include a raise in the state’s minimum wage.
The budget spends about $370 million in federal aid for continuing efforts to combat the current pandemic.
In education, the budget spends about $350 million in pandemic money on learning loss, summer enrichment and afterschool programs, to help children whose educations were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wolf praised the boost to education funding of $416 million, calling it the largest single-year education funding increase in state history.
The $416 million education funding increase includes:
- $200 million increase to the fair funding formula,
- $100 million for Level Up, a new initiative providing more equitable funding to the 100 most underfunded districts and the students they serve,
- $20 million for Ready to Learn,
- $50 million increase for special education,
- $30 million increase for early education, including $25 million to expand Pre-K Counts and $5 million to expand Head Start,
- $11 million for preschool Early Intervention, and
- nearly $5 million for community colleges.
The budget also provides $50 million in ARP funding for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) to support the redesign and growth of the system to make a college education more affordable and accessible, Wolf said.
MediaNews Group contributed to this report.
The Link LonkJune 27, 2021 at 06:09PM
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Pennsylvania budget with school funding boost approved - The Reporter
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