KITCHEN: BUDGET INCREASES SPENDING TO KEY SERVICES

              HARRISBURG, February 5 – While the 2009-10 budget proposal calls for painful spending cuts, it also proposes planned increases in funding to several key areas, which are critical to Pennsylvania’s future.

            “There’s a reason why our unemployment rate is lower than the national average: Pennsylvania has made important investments over the past few years,” Kitchen said. “We need to continue to invest in our citizens’ health, well being and education while focusing on improving our infrastructure, which will provide more jobs and a better environment.”

            The budget proposal, which Gov. Ed Rendell delivered yesterday at the state Capitol, calls for expanding the adultBasic program, which provides affordable basic health coverage to many uninsured Pennsylvanians, most of whom are employed but can’t afford to pay for health care. Pennsylvania’s Cover All Kids program would also see increased funding, which would cover an additional 23,000 children.

            “The number of people on the adultBasic waiting list has skyrocketed over the past year,” Kitchen said. “Clearly, we need to meet the increasing demand for affordable health care in Pennsylvania, so the proposed increase in funding for both adultBasic and Cover All Kids is not just a suggestion, it’s a necessity.”

            The budget also calls for merging the state’s Department of Aging and Office of Long-Term Living to provide more solid services to individuals with disabilities and older Pennsylvanians. Services for veterans and active-duty service men and women will also see increased funding.

            The state’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) would also receive increased funding in order to help the growing number of individuals and families who struggle to pay their heating bills.

            In addition to health services, education funding was also a key element to today’s budget address. The governor has proposed the Pennsylvania Tuition Relief Act, which would provide public or community college tuition assistance to qualified families earning less than $100,000 a year. There would also be an increase in Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) tuition grants, with specified funding for grants to community college students. Also, the capital allocation to the State System of Higher Education would double to $130 million.

            For our younger students, Pre-K Counts funding would increase by $8.6 million, while tutoring and accountability block grants would receive the same amount of funding.

            “Whether we are nurturing our preschoolers or making college affordable to more prospective students, we need to focus on furthering education opportunities in Pennsylvania,” Kitchen said. “Today’s students are our next generation of productive Pennsylvania citizens, so they need the best resources to succeed.”

            In these troubling economic times, job growth is also a crucial area that needs attention. The anticipated federal highway and bridge funds, along with proposed state spending in the budget proposal through the Rebuild PA program, would put people to work immediately on our state’s infrastructure.

            “These infrastructure improvements, along with the governor’s proposal to enact the Pennsylvania Green Building Code, would put skilled laborers to work and make our state more structurally sound and environmentally friendly,” Kitchen said.

            Today’s budget address is just the beginning of the budget process, and in the coming months the senator and her colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives will bring many more ideas to the table.

            “As we get to work on the budget, we need to keep all Pennsylvanians in mind. The unemployment rate, along with growing number of people who need state services like adultBasic and LIHEAP, is a sign of the times,” Kitchen said. “I’m hopeful that, as we start the budget negotiation process, we remember that Pennsylvanians are depending on us to provide them with the services they need now.”