Local Democratic lawmakers blast state budget as helping rich and hurting poor
Area state representatives reacted along party lines to the $27.2 billion 2011-12 state budget, with Democrats calling it detrimental to education and human service programs and a local Republican calling it fiscally responsible.
The House voted mostly along party lines late Wednesday to approve the budget, just as the state Senate did earlier in the week.
The budget passed 109-92 in the House, where Republicans hold a 112-91 majority, and passed 30-20 in the Senate, with all the Republicans in the Senate voting in favor of it and all the Democrats voting against it. The budget includes a spending reduction of about 3 percent from the 2010-11 spending plan.
The budget has been sent to the governor for his signature.
Gov. Tom Corbett and other Republicans have called the budget fiscally responsible without raising taxes. It includes cuts to public and higher education and human service funding. The budget does not include a tax or fee on drillers extracting natural gas from the abundant Marcellus shale reserve.
Rep. Mike Reese, R-Mount Pleasant, who voted in favor of the budget said he has been calling for reducing spending and getting financial priorities straight in the state since he was elected.
“I am happy to say that we have finally started to build a road that will lead Pennsylvania to being economically competitive. This budget reduces spending by more than $1 billion, combines nearly 100 line items and also returns $50 million of the legislative surplus,” Reese said.
Area Democrats, all of whom voted against the budget, were outwardly critical of the budget package.
State Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-South Union Township, said he voted against the budget because it protects large corporations and big oil and natural gas companies from paying their fair share of taxes instead of helping working class families in Pennsylvania.
“The no-tax increase claim is a classic bait-and-switch tactic because it is just a blatant tax shift that homeowners will end up paying for in local taxes,” Mahoney said.
“I cannot support a spending plan that cuts education funding for schools by $1 billion or more, slashes funding for higher education, and makes deep cuts in safety net programs that help seniors in nursing homes, children and adults with disabilities, veterans and the chronically ill,” said state Rep. Peter J. Daley, D-California.
Daley said the plan cuts education funding for kindergarten through 12th grade by more than $1 billion, funding the basic education subsidy at $5.4 billion. He added that the Pre-K Counts and Head Start supplement are reduced by nearly 3 percent below the current year.
Daley said higher education is cut as well, including a $23.5 million cut for community college funding, a $90.6 million cut for the State System of Higher Education and a 19 percent cut for institutional assistance grants through the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. The University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Lincoln University received a 19 percent cut, while Penn State University received an 18.4 percent cut.
Mahoney said the Republican budget slashes are an unprecedented attack on public education that will hurt children, cause thousands of job losses and harm the economy.
Mahoney said public school funding in his district has been slashed as follows:
Uniontown Area School District — $887,955 cut; Laurel Highlands School District — $1,383,476 cut; Albert Gallatin Area School District — $1,396,350 cut and Connellsville Area School District — $2,279,186 cut.
Mahoney called cuts in the budget that would deny low-income women routine breast and cervical cancer screenings “cruel”. He also said the budget cuts transportation for medical assistance patients by $10 million. That transportation assistance, he said, can keep people working and paying taxes by enabling them to attend their medical appointments.
“This is a forlorn day for our commonwealth,” said state Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, who said Democrats were essentially frozen out of the budget process.
“Had Governor Corbett been less smug and distant during these past few months — if he had invited our Democratic leadership team into the process — this document would have been severely different,” DeWeese said.
Regarding a failure to impose any tax on the multibillion-dollar business of extracting natural gas from the Marcellus shale in the budget, DeWeese said, “It is ironic that just after the Carmichaels Water Authority concluded a boil-water advisory, Republicans are passing a budget that lays off workers at DEP.”
The boil-water advisory was implemented because of algae in the water treatment plant.
DeWeese said such cuts make no sense when the state sits on a $700 million budget surplus.
State Rep. Deberah Kula, D-North Union Township, called the Republican-backed budget a “reverse Robin Hood deal” for the state.
“It robs from working class school districts while giving breaks to rich corporations,”Kula said. “The education funding cuts unfairly hit poorer school districts harder than those in well-to-do areas. They jeopardize the education of children from working-class families and open the door for property tax increases on citizens who can least afford to pay more.”
“While this budget makes deep cuts to education and human services that children, the elderly and the poor rely on, it asks nothing of the out-of-state drilling companies that are making millions harvesting our Marcellus shale. Nor does it make any effort to close the Delaware loophole that allows corporations to skirt state taxes. I simply cannot support a budget that hurts children, working families and senior citizens,” Kula said.
Kula said the 2011-12 budget reduces education funding in her 52nd Legislative District by an average of $541 per student.