State Senator Andy Dinniman E-Newsletter May 25, 2011: Budget Update: Latest on Education

May 25, 2011

Dear Friend,

Let me update you on the latest developments from Harrisburg regarding Governor Corbett’s proposed cuts to education in this year’s budget.

This week the House approved a budget bill that would soften some of the cuts to education originally proposed by the governor. The legislation, sponsored by House Appropriations Committee Chair Bill Adolph, calls for restoring $210 million to public schools and $387 million to state-supported universities by shifting funds from other departments.

This spending proposal marks a step in the right direction, but there is much more work ahead. I want to thank the more than 1,000 residents who came out to the Chester County Rally for Education on April 27th and urge you to continue to fight for education. House members obviously heard you, judging by the funding they restored in the House’s budget bill. House Bill 1485 puts back $370 million to higher education programs, $100 million to the Basic Education Subsidy and $100 million to the Accountability Block Grant program (which was eliminated in the governor’s proposal). In addition, the bill calls for restoring $43 million in cuts to School Employees’ Social Security Reimbursements – cuts that would have resulted in significant losses for school districts and higher local property taxes for homeowners.

While the House budget bill marks a modest improvement, it still only restores a piece of the more than $1 billion in total cuts to education originally proposed by the governor. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania remains the only state that does not tax smokeless tobacco and the only major natural gas producing state that does not tax drillers. Please know that I will do everything I can to urge my colleagues in the legislature to realize these potential sources of revenue, reduce costly and outdated mandates and trim spending in order to shore up funding for education.

As I said at the April 27 rally, we recognize that these are challenging economic times and that overall budget reductions are in order. However, the sacrifice needs to be shared and every department needs to shoulder its portion of the burden. I encourage you to continue to put pressure on your representatives to restore funds for education.

Thank you for standing up for education and I’ll be sure to keep you abreast of any future developments. As always, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me with any questions or concerns at andy@pasenate.com.