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FEBRUARY 7, 2012 | Policy Points by COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION
Pennsylvania State Budget Background & 2012 Preview
The FY 2011-12 total operating budget of $63.4 billion, which included $27.1 billion in General Fund spending, represented the first year-to-year reduction in state spending in at least 40 years. However, as the economy continues to struggle out of a recession and with increasing costs in public welfare, corrections, pensions, and debt, the FY 2
FEBRUARY 6, 2012 | Policy Points by COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION
Pennsylvania State Budget Toolkit
2012 Budget Resources
The FY 2011-12 total operating budget of $63.4 billion, which included $27.1 billion in General Fund spending, represented the first year-to-year reduction in state spending in at least 40 years. However, as the economy continues to struggle out of a recession and with increasing costs in public welfare, corrections, pensions, and debt, the FY 2
FEBRUARY 2, 2012 | Commentary by RICHARD DREYFUSS
Will our Grandchildren be Budget Losers?
As the Governor's state budget address approaches, there is no shortage of speculation surrounding various fiscal austerity proposals and which departments and programs will likely be the ultimate budgetary "winners and losers."
Recent Blog Posts
FEBRUARY 7, 2012
Budget Cuts Do Not Equal Tuition Hikes
Last year we highlighted waste in public higher education, such as Indiana University of Pennsylvania's golf simulator with 52 different golf courses and Penn State's decision to construct new buildings so they can offer fewer early morning classes. Yet here we are again witnessing an avalanche of criticism over Gov. Corbett's cuts to higher education. The 20 to 30 percent cuts are significant, but reasonable, considering universities' inability to control costs.
Consider the example of Penn State. Special interests screamed bloody murder about the cut to Penn State's taxpayer subsidy last year, proclaiming tuition would skyrocket, but the actual increase ended up being the smallest in years.
Contrary to popular belief, tuition at public universities has ballooned despite taxpayer support. Taxpayers provided nearly $3.5 billion to Penn State over the last decade while tuition doubled to $15,250.
It's understandable to think state subsidies would keep tuition at bay, but it doesn't. Universities hike tuition when state subsidies are scarce and when state appropriations increase. The real driver of tuition hikes is soaring administration costs, not declining state subsidies.
Gov. Corbett recognizes shoving more money at public universities won't stop incessant tuition hikes. His call for a candid conversation on state government's role in higher education is sorely needed.
posted by ELIZABETH STELLE | 06:11 PM | 0 comment
FEBRUARY 7, 2012
Stop the Fiscal Inferno!
Burn, baby, burn, it's a fiscal inferno!
Okay, perhaps that's not exactly how the old disco song goes, but that's certainly how some politicians are singing it in Harrisburg. Pennsylvania's fiscal house is about to catch fire and they need to change their tune.
While bell bottoms and leisure suits have long since gone out of style, it has taken Pennsylvania far longer to snap out of the Seventies tax-and-spend mindset. Before Gov. Corbett and the legislature cut spending last year, state spending had grown for decades, far outpacing inflation and population growth. This built a budgetary bonfire that will soon reduce Pennsylvania families to ashes if we don't put it out now.
Yet, too many in Harrisburg continue to cling to a disco-era mentality, failing to create jobs, modernize antiquated "prevailing wage" mandates, privatize liquor stores, or save children from failing and violent schools.
Worse yet, a new, job-killing tax was revealed yesterday that just passed the Senate - a tax that would not put out the fiscal inferno, but instead would feed it. This came suddenly after a handful of legislators and staff struck a deal behind closed doors. As the fiscal inferno grows, we will watch thousands of jobs and affordable home energy go up in flames. Burn, baby, burn.
Don't stand by and watch the fiscal inferno destroy our financial future. Click here to ask your legislator to protect Pennsylvania's economy from the four-alarm inferno and click here to ask them to vote against a tax on Marcellus Shale drilling. It will take just a few short minutes; please take action right now! It's time for Harrisburg to snap out of the Seventies and for overgrown government and tax-and-spend attitudes to go the way of platform shoes and polyester double-knits.
posted by DAWN MELING | 03:31 PM | 0 comment
FEBRUARY 1, 2012
Criminal Justice Reforms to Reduce Spending & Crime
Change is on the horizon for Pennsylvania's Department of Corrections - now the third-largest state agency in the General Fund budget - which along with state debt, pensions and welfare threatens to bankrupt the state if left unchecked.
Last week, Gov. Corbett launched Pennsylvania's Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), a working group tasked with controlling correction costs while maximizing public safety and reducing recidivism. The new panel has support from the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the Pew Center on the States; both experienced at helping states develop meaningful criminal justice reforms.
The JRI is a step in the right direction for the commonwealth, which needs to replace ineffective policies with those that lower crime rates, reduce re-offending, and control spending. To learn more about correction reforms, see our see our criminal justice recommendations.
posted by KATRINA CURRIE | 08:00 AM | 0 comment
