HARRISBURG - A $27.65 billion state budget bill won final legislative approval Friday, but lawmakers are still working on other bills spelling out how tax dollars will be spent for welfare programs and public schools.
The budget bill sent to Gov. Tom Corbett for signing ends a long-standing state welfare program, adds money to reduce waiting lists for services to the mentally disabled, cuts county-run human services programs and provides flat funding for basic and higher education.
Corbett said the Legislature's work won't be done until an entire budget package including bills defining how tax dollars are spent for welfare programs and public schools reaches his desk. One of those bills specifies that The Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton will receive $2 million in state aid through a program for academic medical centers, the same as current levels.
The governor said he expects work on this package to continue today, which is the start of the 2012-13 fiscal year and the deadline for having a new budget.
The budget will end the General Assistance cash grant program, which benefits nearly 70,000 low-income Pennsylvanians who receive a monthly payment in the range of $200.
A last-minute change led to a month-long extension of the date when the GA cash grant program will end.
A welfare code bill moving to passage sets an Aug. 1 end date for the program instead of having it ending abruptly Sunday as had been the plan.
This extension will allow recipients to receive their final check July 27 and receive proper notification of the program's end, said Senate Democratic Appropriations Chairman Vincent Hughes, D-7, Philadelphia.
"The Department has taken the necessary steps to ensure the transition takes place in a manner consistent with such legislative changes," wrote Gary Alexander, secretary of the Department of Public Welfare, in a letter to lawmakers.
The great majority of recipients are adults with permanent or temporary disabilities, but they also include victims of domestic violence, children under age 18 in the care of an adult who is not a relative and individuals in drug and alcohol treatment programs.
State employees are looking to see what other forms of aid can be provided to those individuals, said Corbett. He said a number of GA cash recipients could be eligible for help through other programs.
Senate Democrats were unsuccessful in efforts to restore $150 million to continue the program.
"It (the program's end) kicks about 70,000 people to the curb," said Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald, who voted against the budget.
Blake said the final budget doesn't go far enough in using available revenues to further restore cuts.
Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., voted for the budget, saying it reflects fiscal realities.
"It is what the majority of taxpayers demand, what the ongoing lack of a substantial rebound in state revenues dictates, and what looking down the road to rising obligations in the next budget warrants," she said.
Casting a no vote, Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Nanticoke, said the budget falls short in addressing the high jobless rate in Northeast Pennsylvania. He also criticized the lack of agreement on a package providing state flood aid to supplement federal disaster relief for damages caused by Tropical Storm Lee and Hurricane Irene last fall.
"The General Assembly had a chance to include a bipartisan package of legislation in the budget that would have provided significant disaster relief to these families, but this budget will regrettably keep struggling families from getting back on their feet," said Yudichak.
A law authorizing local officials to provide property tax abatements to owners of flood-damaged properties was recently signed by Corbett, but the House and Senate are at odds over borrowing to finance the state share for repairs to flood-damaged bridges and highways.
Sen. David Argall, R-29, Tamaqua, voted for the budget, saying it reins in wasteful spending yet restores funding for school districts and hospitals.
The budget cuts state funding for seven county-run human services programs to individuals with mental disabilities, those with drug and alcohol problems, the homeless and the elderly among others by 10 percent or $84 million.
The welfare code bill authorizes a pilot program involving up to 20 counties to implement a block grant approach to fund those seven programs.
The budget provides $17.8 million to reduce waiting lists for services for individuals with mental disabilities. It will provide support services in the home and community for 700 graduates of high school special education programs, as well as residential living for 430 individuals currently at home with aging parents.
A tax code bill provides a state business tax credit for a planned $4 billion natural gas ethane "cracker" plant in Southweast Pennsylvania starting in 2017. It stipulates that Shell Oil Co. must invest $1 billion and create 2,500 construction jobs to start receiving the tax credit.
The cracker plant will benefit dozens of plastic manufacturers in Northeast Pennsylvania that currently import ethane products from Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, said Baker.
She said having access to ethane products from the cracker plant will cut shipping costs for Proctor and Gamble's plant in Mehoopany and help it be more competitive.