December 31, 2015
Budget Update
The year 2015 has come and gone, and Pennsylvania has yet to see any snow or a complete 2015-2016 spending plan. By Christmas Eve, the House and Senate sent a $30.2 billion general appropriation bill, H.B. 1460 (Adolph, R-Delaware), to the Governor. However, earlier this week, the Governor used his line-item veto power to partially approve and partially disapprove the bill.
In a press conference held at the Capitol on Tuesday, the Governor announced he would be releasing $23.3 billion in funding. Some of the line items were erased in their entirety, while others were reduced in order to release just enough cash to keep schools open and human services organizations afloat.
Read Gov. Wolf’s remarks in their entirety: https://www.governor.pa.gov/governor-wolf-remarks-on-rejecting-republican-cut-to-education-releasing-emergency-funding/
Schools and human services providers will receive limited emergency funding until a final budget agreement is reached. Basic education funding will receive nearly six months’ worth of funding; however, non-preferred appropriation bills to fund Penn State, Pitt, Temple and Lincoln Universities have still not been passed, and those schools will begin the new year without state funding.
See here for a list of the items blue-lined from the general appropriation bill: https://www.scribd.com/doc/294219652/General-Fund-Tracking-Run
It’s uncertain when budget talks will heat up again. Both chambers are in recess but on six-hour call. With only about a month until the Governor delivers his budget address for the next fiscal year, we can only hope that ringing in the New Year will also bring a new and finalized budget.