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.
Read the full article here.
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.
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Post-Gazette: Pennsylvania’s budget moves forward
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.”
Read the full article here.
AP: Budget deal near with higher sales tax, more school funding
By MARC LEVY and MARK SCOLFORO
The Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A potential deal to break Pennsylvania’s budget stalemate in its fifth month includes a state sales tax increase, expanded school property tax cuts and hundreds of millions of new dollars for public schools, top state lawmakers said Monday.
Gov. Tom Wolf’s office said the new money for public schools amounted to a record increase, a major priority of his, even if the first-term Democrat had made major concessions in other areas, such as losing his fight to impose a tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas production.
It also appeared that Wolf would get at least a portion of the multibillion-dollar state tax increase that he had sought to help correct a long-term deficit and transform a school funding system that harbors huge disparities between rich and poor districts.
Meanwhile, the Legislature’s huge Republican majorities made headway on their goal of imposing major pension changes for future state and school employees, while plans to privatize some or all of the state-controlled wine and liquor system remained up in the air.
Many other crucial details were unresolved Monday and negotiators said a final agreement would not be in place until all of its elements get settled.
“Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre. “We’re trying to put a framework together that will move us forward to get to a final agreement.”
Still, disagreements remained about the extent of settled details. For instance, Wolf’s office said it had secured an agreement for $750 million in new dollars over two years for public schools, special education and pre-kindergarten programs. Republican lawmakers disputed some elements of that assertion.
The parties did agree, however, that public schools would get $350 million in new money for instruction and operations, a 6 percent increase to about $6.1 billion. Wolf had originally sought $400 million.
Ironing out those details and passing legislation could require several more weeks.
“There’s a lot of second-, third- and fourth-tier decisions that need to be made,” said House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana.
Under the preliminary deal, state spending would rise to $30.7 billion, up about 6 percent from last year’s approved budget. It would be boosted by about $500 million in slot-machine gambling revenue that is currently passed along to homeowners as school property tax cuts. That money would be diverted into a restricted account to pay for public school employee pension obligations.
The loss of that money for school property tax cuts would be replaced by about $2 billion expected from a state sales tax increase to 7.25 percent, up from the current 6 percent. The rate would rise to 8.25 percent in Allegheny County, where it is currently 7 percent, and to 9.25 percent in Philadelphia, where it is currently 8 percent.
Amid staunch Republican opposition, a deal would not include a new tax on Marcellus Shale production that Wolf had sought. Tax increases on cigarettes and on banks were still under discussion.
There was no agreement on how new money for schools and property tax cuts would be distributed to each district, an issue that the governor’s office has said is of “critical importance.” Meanwhile, negotiators were discussing measures to further limit the ability of school boards to raise taxes as part of the package of new money.
Read the full article here.
NBC 10: School Ending Pre-K Over Lack of Budget
Pre-K Counts is just one of many programs in Pennsylvania that have had to shut down because of the state budget stalemate. NBC10’s Lauren Mayk reports with how workers are trying to keep their programs running amid the funding freeze.
Read more here.
Express-Times LTE: PA Should Boost Pre-K Program Funding
As an educator of young children in a Pre-K Counts Program, I have seen firsthand how it can help young learners from the start. The programs and opportunities provided to these children have broadened their horizons and have encouraged their learning in many ways.
Children who are encouraged to learn as young children grow into school age learners; they have excitement about learning and have a solid foundation upon which to build.
In the current economic setting we can only reach so many children, and we could reach so many more children and provide more educational opportunities if the state would increase the funding for high quality pre-K programs.
I hope the lawmakers and Gov. Wolf can work together to create a budget that expands access to high-quality pre-K as much as possible so more children can benefit the way my current students are benefiting from the program.
Johanna Andresen
Easton
Read the Letter here.
