Corbett Announces $27 Billion State Budget

Governor Tom Corbett presented his budget proposal to both houses of the state legislature Tuesday and, as expected, it reflects the state’s difficult financial situation.

There are plenty of cuts to address the state’s revenue shortfall, but it does not include any tax increases. In fact, Corbett said he would work with lawmakers on the budget but said tax increases were not an option.

Early Tuesday morning philly.com reported that aid to state universities would be cut 20 to 30 percent, which Corbett confirmed early in his speech. Pitt, Temple and Penn State would see aid cut 30 percent while other state system schools would see aid cut 20 percent under Corbett’s plan according to PennLive.com's Twitter feed. Community colleges would see a 4 percent decrease in funding.

PennLive.com also determined that if the legislature passes the plan as is, Penn State would have seen its aid cut 50 percent in the first two years of Corbett’s administration. Corbett opened his address by asking for .

Closer to home, aid to local school districts would increase about 3 percent, but most of that increase would go toward funding pension obligations. In effect, aid would remain at last year’s levels.

The level of state aid for Centennial's does not come as much of a surprise for Chris Berdnik, the school district's business administrator. His projection for funding from Harrisburg was only $38,000 more than the actual amount of $17,294,042.

"The budget was just released, so there is a lot of fine print yet to see," said Berdnik. "Our quick impression is that the governor’s proposal is not materially different than what we assumed in Centennial’s preliminary budget. The good news is that our estimate was solid.  The bad news is that does not improve our long-range forecast."

State employees are largely spared under the proposal, which shows about 650 jobs being eliminated, mostly through attrition. In addition, no state police stations will be closed and the budget includes a class of 115 new cadets.

Unlike last year, Corbett did not discuss selling the state’s liquor stores.

Corbett quoted former presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan to support his plan to “right size” the state’s welfare system. He quoted FDR’s third state of the union speech – “To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit” – and used a portion of a 1982 Reagan speech – “Big government has a way of spending all the money it can get its hands on, and then some. Not only does this excessive taxation put a ball and chain around our economy, it simply does not solve our spending problem.”

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party swiftly released a response to Corbett's budget proposal, saying the dramatic cuts to college aid will hurt the state's middle class by forcing families to pay more for tuition.

"Homeowners will pay higher taxes because of Tom Corbett's budget and families will pay more for college because of Tom Corbett's budget," said Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Jim Burn. "Schools will be forced to lay off teachers and valuable programs that serve children and seniors will be drastically scaled back or ended. While Tom Corbett continues his assault on middle class families, his donors continue to get tax breaks and special considerations. This is the wrong budget for Pennsylvania's families built on the wrong priorities."

Corbett's plan to “right-size” welfare includes some work requirements for 30,000 recipients and new eligibility rules. He also quoted President Obama on his plan to cut back on state funding of universities and threw out a Teddy Roosevelt quote near the end of his address.