Activists Mobilize for Corbett's Latest Budget Cuts (several new articles) [View all]

[JPZenger]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120205_Activists_mobilize_ahead_of_Corbett_budget_address.html?viewAll=y

Excerpts:

"Pennsylvania's 500 school districts are still stinging from the 2011-12 state cuts as they try to work out their own budgets with rising pension obligations - expected to jump by 40 percent this year - and increased health-care costs.

The economic picture is bleak for schools. Wealthier districts face the prospect of again raising taxes or cutting more programs or staff. Poorer districts are coming nearer to the once-unthinkable prospect of shutting their doors.

The beleaguered Chester Upland School District ran out of money in January before getting a court-ordered stopgap infusion of state aid. Last week a second district, in York, said it would not be able to meet its payroll after May.

In the wake of state cuts last year, all but 16 of the 63 suburban districts in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties raised taxes - but even that didn't stave off layoffs. In Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, roughly 5,500 school jobs were eliminated."
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Phila. Schools Continue to Face Huge Deficits, Despite Thousands of Job Eliminations

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20120203_Loss_of_91_school_police_saves_1_percent_of_needed_cuts.html

Excerpts:

"The Philadelphia School District eliminated 91 school police jobs on Friday in a cost-cutting move that brings the total number of city schools without officers to 100. Also cut were eight regional office jobs and six central office jobs. The district faces a $61 million budget hole that must be plugged by June.

The district has had a long-standing problem with school safety. The Inquirer investigative series "Assault on Learning" found that violence in city schools is widespread and underreported, with 30,000 serious incidents over the last five school years. Those findings were corroborated by a district blue-ribbon panel on safety.

Prior to Friday's cuts, district officials had announced they would drastically cut back on summer school, cancel a planned pay raise for nonunionized administrative employees, force them to contribute to their health insurance costs and institute furloughs and pay cuts for some workers. Also possible are cuts to school psychologists and the elimination of spring athletics, instrumental music, gifted programs, and bilingual counselors, though those decisions haven't been finalized.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who has questioned the district's financial viability, has estimated the district will need to cut $400,000 a day to make up the $61 million shortfall by June. The district already faces a $269 million budget gap for its 2012-13 fiscal year."

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Half of the school nurses in the Phil. School District have been eliminated in recent years.

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20120201_ap_unionwarnsnurselayoffsendangerphillystudents.html

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The Pittsburgh area public transit system is planning another major round of severe cuts in service. Corbett appointed a knowledgeable commission to resolve shrinking transportation funding and they came up with many reasonable recommendations. However, Corbett refuses to do anything to carry out the recommendations of his own commission.

"The Port Authority is planning to cut 35 percent of its service, including 46 of its remaining 102 routes, and lay off up to 600 employees in September if it doesn't get state help in closing a projected $64 million budget deficit. "Everyone engaged in this issue is waiting to hear what the governor will say about transportation funding," authority CEO Steve Bland said last month."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1208059-454.stm#ixzz1lZ1iLdeQ

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http://blogs.mcall.com/capitol_ideas/2012/02/sunday-news-analysis-a-look-ahead-to-corbett-budget-ii.html

Excerpts from Allentown Morning Call's Harrisburg correspondent:

"Rep. Markosek asked. "it's premature to really project a big deficit or any kind of surplus. Right now, the revenue is coming in slightly higher than it was in fiscal 2010-11." Markosek's pronouncements mostly were backed up by a report by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York at Albany, which shows state tax revenues nationwide during the third quarter of 2011 grew by a rate of 6.1 percent.

Pennsylvania took in $7 billion in general fund tax revenue during the third quarter of 2010, compared with $7.2 billion during the same time period in 2011, the report shows. Sharon Ward, executive director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, acknowledges that the economy has slowed, hurting revenues. But she asks: "Is it their intent to make it look worse?"

Critics say the administration could have helped the bottom line — at least regarding corporate tax collections — by not providing businesses $200 million in tax breaks. That included allowing businesses to write off the entire cost of their expenses in one year, rather than over several years. The practice is known as "bonus depreciation." "