PennLive: As Budget Framework Emerges, Preschool Advocates Fear They’ll be Squeezed Out: Analysis
By John L Micek
Gov. Tom Wolf and legislative Republicans may be working out the fine print details of a nascent state budget framework, but advocates for early childhood education programs already fear the state’s youngest residents could get squeezed out of a final deal.
“If there is one clear way to spend state money and know you are making a real difference, it’s on Pre-k,” said David L. Cohen, the Comcast executive who’s part of a coalition pushing for the increased funding.
And even though a final agreement on a spending plan that’s now five months late is still a week or two away, at minimum, Cohen and his allies have been working the phones and prowling the Capitol, urging budget negotiators to give the programs a serious cash bump.
How much?
Here’s the debate, by the numbers:
During his budget rollout in March, Wolf asked lawmakers to authorize $120 million for both prekindergarten and Head Start programs. The budget plan the Senate approved back in June included $30 million for the two expenditures.
The two sides clashed earlier this week over how much early childhood education funding was included in the emerging framework. The administration claimed $50 million, which Senate GOP leaders disputed vigorously.
Right now, as is the case with most of the budgetary fine print, the total tally is a moving target, those close to the negotiations said.
So why does the number matter?
It’s all about access.
According to data compiled by the Pennsylvania Office of Early Childhood Development, nearly 17,000 students are on a waiting list for those programs statewide.
Advocates say the $120 million sought by Wolf would pay for 14,000 children, while $60 million would pay for 7,000 children. The $30 million included in the Republican-authored budget that Wolf vetoed in June would pay for just 3,500 students. They say that’s unacceptable.
And viewed in that context, the drumbeat advocates were sounding in the Capitol this week makes sense.
It’s a budget season truism that those who squawk the loudest tend to be heard, and, as a result, have their programs funded (sort-of) close to what they’re looking for in the final document.
But as one veteran budgeteer pointed out this week, most everything in the framework is still a moving target, and while entirely fretting is appropriate, it might be a tad premature.
That’s particularly true in the case of early childhood education, which just about everyone in the Capitol thinks is a good idea and which experts agree is critical for future school success.
The benefits are quantifiable and indisputable – and the agreed-upon need is truly bipartisan,” Cohen said. “Unfortunately, far too many kids in our commonwealth are still not able to get into really good pre-k programs. The fix for this is within reach and is affordable.”
It’s also important to note here that one of the most vocal advocates for these programs is Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, who has never been accused of being a European Socialist.
As ever, the debate comes down to how much, not whether, to spend money. And based on public statements by the Wolf administration and the GOP, that’s where things are at the moment.
Wolf’s spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan said Thursday that “investing in early childhood education is a huge priority,” for Wolf, who is still “fighting for at least $50 million in increased funding for this year. It is unclear why Republicans are so resistant to this additional funding.”
The Notebook: Pa. budget framework supports major funding boost for public schools
By Kevin McCorry
Sources in the Pennsylvania Capitol say that the framework reached Monday for a state budget agreement includes a $400 million increase to K-12 public education this year.
While $350 million would be funneled into the basic education subsidy, an additional $50 million would go to special education. Pre-K programming would also see a boost, but sources differed on the amounts.
The state’s budget for higher education would increase by 5 percent.
“This is the first time that we feel like we’re moving ahead, and everyone is on the same track — as opposed to having a solid deal or anything final,” said Jenn Kocher, spokeswoman for Senate Republicans. “Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to.”
Gov. Wolf’s administration would not comment on any specifics. Spokesman Jeff Sheridan confirmed, though, that negotiations have progressed.
“We believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
A source close to the Wolf administration said that a framework had been reached for the 2016-17 school year as well. Under that scenario, $200 million more would be added to basic education, and special education and pre-K would each get an additional $50 million.
Neither Kocher nor a spokesman for House Republicans could verify those proposals.
Budget negotiations have dragged on for months after the June 30 deadline. Wolf, a Democrat, has prioritized a drastic increase in state education aid, as Republican leaders have balked at the package of tax increases that Wolf proposed to pay for it.
Philly.com: Possible breakthrough in Pa.’s budget stalemate?
Chris Palmer and Angela Couloumbis
HARRISBURG – For the first time in their five-month-old standoff, Gov. Wolf and Republican legislators indicated Monday that they had reached a tentative agreement on key pieces of the long-overdue state budget.
Republican leaders in the Senate and House told reporters that a $30.26 billion spending plan would likely boost education funding, use a sales-tax hike to generate property-tax relief, and bring changes to the public pension and State Store systems.
“After months of obstruction, we’ve made real progress on a budget deal,” Wolf said in a Monday evening email to his campaign supporters. “For the first time, I’m optimistic we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Both sides cautioned that many details remained unresolved – and there seemed to be disagreement about the scope of the pact. It also was poised to address contentious legislative topics that have lingered in the Capitol for years.
“We’re not done by any stretch,” said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre).
Neither side would discuss how or when they reached a breakthrough, when a budget proposal might be ready for legislators to consider, or how soon the money would flow again to the schools, offices, and agencies that have struggled to remain afloat without state aid for months. Several predicted an agreement by Thanksgiving.
But the framework they disclosed suggested victories for both Wolf and the Republican-controlled legislature – as well as some concessions.
The governor, for example, would secure the boost in education funding that he has made a centerpiece of his budget, but abandon his plan to impose a new tax on natural gas drilling.
Republicans would win their battle to privatize aspects of liquor stores and enact reforms to the pension system, issues they have spent years pushing. But the GOP leaders who have uniformly opposed broad-based tax increases would have to approve one in the sales tax – even though an offset would occur in property taxes.
Bill Patton, spokesman for House Democrats, noted that any final deal was likely to include pluses and minuses for both sides.
“That’s compromise,” he said.
The deal would call for raising the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7.25 percent, Corman said. That would create about $2 billion in new revenue, which could cover a major property tax reduction and permit the state to increase basic education funding by $350 million in the current fiscal year. Special education would receive an additional $50 million in funding as well, Corman said.
Wolf’s spokesman, Jeff Sheridan, said Republican leaders had agreed to a larger education package: an additional $50 million more for prekindergarten this year, as well as $300 million combined for basic education, special education, and prekindergarten next year.
Corman, however, said the focus was on this year alone.
PennLive: Gov. Tom Wolf lauds “major commitment” for new school funding; Republicans describe different terms
By Charles Thompson
The Wolf Administration claimed a major victory in its protracted negotiations for a new state budget: a large increase in state aid to schools for the current academic year.
But, as if to underline the fragile nature of the ongoing talks, the two major parties gave different spins Monday on what, exactly they had agreed to.
Wolf’s Press Secretary Jeff Sheridan touted what he said was a two-year commitment to raise the state’s major pre-school and basic education line items by $750 million through this year and next.
Senate Republican sources, meanwhile, quickly clarified that what they have agreed to thus far is $400 million in spending growth in this budget year, with talks on pre-school funding still to be finalized.
On a day filled with mostly good vibes, the difference could be more a sign that the concrete hasn’t dried on many of the still-emerging details of a delayed budget framework for the 2015-16 fiscal year.
All sides acknowledged there is not yet agreement, for example, on how Wolf and the GOP-controlled legislature would drive out the new dollars to the state’s 500 school districts.
But here’s where the language was consistent Monday:
* The delayed budget will contain a $350 million increase in the state’s basic education subsidy, the main source of state aid to k-12 classroom instruction. Wolf had initially sought $400 million in new funding.
That increase would increase this line from $5.53 billion last year, to $5.88 billion, in a line that represents nearly one out of every five dollars spent in the state’s $30 billion general fund.
* It will also carry $50 million growth in state funding for special education services, bringing that line to just under $1.1 billion. Wolf’s initial proposal was for an additional $100 million.
Both sides also confirmed Monday that the framework deal being patched together will include a 5 percent increase in aid to the both the state-owned and state-related universities.
“That’s what we’re carrying right now,” Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre County, said of the higher education increase.
Where things got murkier was in the area of pre-kindergarten services. Sheridan said the GOP leaders have given a commitment for an additional $50 million increase there, while Senate sources said that number remains under negotiation.
And then there’s 2016-17.
Sheridan claimed the Republicans’ commitment is for an additional $300 million in new spending in 2016-17, with $200 million for basic education, and another $50 million each for special education and pre-k.
By Karen Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG — Legislative leaders and the governor’s office said Monday that they have tentatively agreed to a framework for an end to the impasse that has delayed the Pennsylvania state budget more than four months.
Leaders from both parties in the House and Senate briefed their members on the proposals under discussion, which Republican leaders said include increases in education funding, a hike in the sales tax and a large increase in relief from local property taxes.
It was clear that disagreement remains. While a spokesman for Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, insisted that Republicans had committed to particular increases in the main K-12 education funding line and funding for special education and pre-K over the next two years, aides to the top Senate Republicans said that was not entirely the case.
“We’re moving, which is obviously a huge step forward for all of us,” said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre. “I think we can resolve these other issues in a fairly short period of time, but until they’re resolved, I can’t tell you we’re done because we’re not.”
Mr. Corman said that framework involves an increase from 6 percent to 7.25 percent in the state sales tax, generating $2 billion that would be used to reduce property taxes. Two other tax increases originally proposed by Mr. Wolf — a hike in the personal income tax and the establishment of a severance tax on natural gas drilling — are not part of the discussion, Mr. Corman said.
Reaching a final deal will require negotiators to arrive at a plan for the state’s system of alcohol sales, which Republicans have proposed disbanding, and to finalize a proposal of changes to the pension systems for state and public school workers, he said. They would also need to decide on a way to distribute the property-tax money among school districts and a way to control increases in property taxes at the local level, he said.
House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, said raising the sales tax to 7.25 percent is “part of that discussion,” and that the increase in revenue would be driven out to homesteads and farmsteads. Mr. Reed said House Republicans had many questions but that the briefing went well.
“Our members want to get done by Thanksgiving just like the governor and everybody else,” he said.
Jeffrey Sheridan, spokesman for Mr. Wolf, said Republican leaders had committed to specific increases in education funding: $350 million in the main K-12 education line along with $50 million for special education and $50 million for pre-K this year and then in the year beginning in July 2016 another $200 million for the main K-12 line along with another $50 million for special education and $50 million for pre-K.
“He secured from Republican leaders a historic commitment in education funding,” Mr. Sheridan said. “It would be the largest single increase in education funding in the history of Pennsylvania.”
Mr. Corman said the framework includes $350 million in basic education funding and $50 million in special education, while Mr. Reed said the $350 million figure “certainly is a potential number for this year.”
