HARRISBURG - Lawmakers were working against a midnight deadline Saturday to give full approval to a $27.65 billion state budget and related legislation that shortens the safety net for the disadvantaged, provides basically flat funding for basic and higher education and expands use of state business tax credits for a variety of purposes.
They spent the day acting on bills that spell out how tax dollars will be spent for welfare programs, public education and other areas. The full package needs to be signed by Gov. Tom Corbett for the state to exercise spending authority in the new 2012-13 fiscal year.
The budget spends $500 million more than Corbett proposed in February, contains no state tax increases and reflects a steady improvement in state tax revenue collections in recent months.
The budget package includes funding for items large and small, including $2 million for the Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton and $50,000 for a program run by the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce called Scranton Skills. The latter is a business education partnership to provide targeted job training for health care and electronics workers.
The nearly 70,000 individuals receiving a $200 monthly payment under the General Assistance cash grant program will be among those affected most quickly by the budget.
This program is scheduled to end Aug. 1. Recipients, mostly adults with disabilities, will receive their last payment on July 27.
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, and establishes a large-scale pilot program where up to 20 counties can get state funds through a block grant.
A 10 percent cut leaves homeless assistance with $18.5 million, a funding level that will noticeably impact local programs that provide temporary shelter to the homeless and help with rent for those in danger of becoming homeless, said the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
The end of GA cash grants program will have a ripple effect on social service agencies coping with the 10 percent cut, said Gary Drapek, president of the United Way of Lackawanna and Wayne Counties. Those individuals will turn for help to social service agencies already feeling strains, he added.
"It (budget) still doesn't go far enough in recognizing the needs of the most vulnerable in Pennsylvania," Drapek said.
Children in Pennsylvania will fare better under the final budget with level funding for Accountability Block Grants in schools and other early education programs, said Joan Benso, president of the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, an advocacy group. But a $28 million cut in state funding for child care for working families is a setback, she added.
The budget package provides a long-term state tax credit to Shell Oil Co. for a planned $4 billion ethane cracker plant in Beaver County starting in 2017 and establishes a tax credit starting in fiscal 2013-14 for businesses that make contributions to local providers of services to individuals with mental disabilities.