PA budget

email from Governor Wolf, 3/24/16

I won’t sign the Republican budget because the math simply doesn’t add up.

According to their own arithmetic, the Republican budget creates a $1.6 billion deficit in 2016-17 that will prompt massive cuts to education, teacher layoffs, higher property taxes, and cuts to senior programs.

They’ve fought for the failed status quo and they should be held accountable for their actions.

But it’s time to do the responsible thing and end the current impasse to get money to our schools and ensure seniors have the life-saving prescriptions they need.

While I cannot in good conscience attach my name to a budget that does not balance, I am going to let HB1801 become law.

It means that schools will stay open through the end of this year. Seniors will get the drugs they need at affordable prices this year. Counties and municipalities will have the state funds they need to operate this year.

But unless Harrisburg changes its ways, they won’t have adequate funds for next year.

Let’s not pretend anymore.

The Independent Fiscal Office isn’t pretending.

The rating agencies that have warned Harrisburg about another credit downgrade if they don’t help get our fiscal house in order aren’t pretending.

Pennsylvanians who want schools that teach, jobs that pay, and government that works aren’t pretending.

We need to get back to work on creating a real and balanced budget — and if you’re with me, I hope you’ll call your State Senator and State Representative:

Senator Andrew Dinniman (D)
(717) 787-5709

Representative Dan Truitt (R)
(717) 260-6164

Thank you,

Tom Wolf

By Candice Monhollan, Daily Local News, 8/29/15

UPPER PROVIDENCE >> Almost two months into the state budget impasse, with no end currently in sight, schools and Pre-K classrooms are getting ready to welcome students to the 2015-16 year.

Unfortunately, that welcome comes with a strained smile as the impasse threatens many programs and puts a large toll on school districts across the Commonwealth.

“We typically receive the first of our subsidy payments in August, but that date has come and done,” said West Chester Area School District Superintendent Jim Scanlon. “Because we only receive about 15 percent of our funding from the state, we are still in pretty good shape to start the school year.”

Though the district will have no trouble opening Aug. 31, the impasse does hit it in regards to charter schools.

“There has been an impact to our charter school payments as we were expected to make those payments in August,” Scanlon said. “Without state funding, we withheld those payments, but we received work last week that the state will deduct payments from our tax-relief allocation, which we were supposed to receive this week.”

Charter schools will cost the district roughly $9.1 million during the 2015-16 school year.

“The state will be deducting the past month’s payments from our subsidy,” Scanlon said. “If all charters applied for the deduction, we will be paying one month’s worth of charter school payments from that $1.8 million in tax-relief funding, or approximately $758,000.”…

read more at Daily Local News