Jun 20, 2011 By Amy Revakheraldstandard.Com 7 min read

?Two members of the Senate Democratic Caucus recently touted a counter plan to Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed 2011-2012 state budget that includes deep cuts in education and human service spending.

State Sen. Jay Costa, D-Pittsburgh, and Sen. Rich Kasunic, D-Dunbar, recently outlined the caucus solution to how to combat all the budget cuts Corbett is proposing.

“We’re trying to get our message across to the governors office that we have a huge surplus of $540 million, and for the programs he had proposed cuts, we feel the surplus can be used to restore funding for essential programs such as education and health care,” Kasunic said.

Although Costa and Kasunic and the 18 other Democrats in the Senate are outnumbered, Costa said the two caucuses have a good relationship and the Senate Democrats work closely with Senate Republican colleagues.

Republicans hold a 30 to 20 majority over Democrats in the Senate and House Republicans outnumber Democrats 112 to 91. In addition, Corbett is a Republican.

Corbett has proposed a $27.3 billion budget, and Costa predicts a final state budget will be adopted by the June 30 deadline.

“I think you will see at the end of the day that there will be more money allocated for block grants, higher education funding, hospitals and a Marcellus shale tax,” Costa said.

Kasunic said a lot of Senate Republicans represent rural areas and they understand the need for austerity.

Speaking before members of the HeraldStandard.com editorial board, Costa, the Senate minority leader, said he anticipates that budget talks will continue throughout the coming week.

Costa said the state will be facing a $4.2 billion loss of revenue from the budget, a void left by the end of the federal economic stimulus allocation.

“We recognize need to limit spending but want to look at the 2011-2012 budget as well as the 2012-2013 budget,” Costa said. “We recognize the need to craft a budget that will be sustained by revenue.”

Costa said the Senate Democrats want to put more money in education. He said as a result of Corbett’s proposal, school districts could be facing a major reduction, including 10,000 proposed layoffs throughout the state including teachers, aides and clerical staff.

“The cuts don’t need to be that deep,” Costa said.

In addition to the basic education cuts, Costa said Corbett has no funding included for the school districts accountability block grant program, which encompasses 11 or 12 items used by school districts for things such as pre-kindergarten and all-day kindergarten.

Also, $49 million in tutoring funding has been eliminated, Costa said.

Costa predicted that by cutting charter school reimbursement from the state, and the fact that school districts still have the responsibility to pay, it will impact low-income areas and the poorer school systems.

“We need to get back to reasonable funding, and we’re not there,” Costa said.

Kasunic said Corbett’s school funding is proposed at 2007-2008 levels.

“We’re taking a step way back. People need and want jobs. If we cut education we will lose a generation of people,” Kasunic said. “The children of the commonwealth will be hurt. We can’t cut in those areas.”

Kasunic said taking a look at what can be cut in government should be part of the equation.

“We know there are abuses in government and fraud; it’s nothing new, it’s been happening for years. We should deal with that,” Kasunic said.

In addition to basic eduction cuts in his budget, Corbett has cut funding by half to universities such as the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State and Temple.

Kasunic said if those cuts remain, a lot of young people in Fayette County may not go to college. He said the proposed budget also cuts funding to the state university system. He said poor students in Fayette County can’t attend California University of Pennsylvania, Indiana or Shippensburg.

As part of their proposal, Costa said Senate Democrats estimate there will be a $600 million surplus and initially 25 percent, or $125 million, should be placed in a “Rainy Day Fund.”

After that, the remainder should be used over the next two years for programs such as workforce development and training.

Addressing the elimination of the Human Services Development Fund, Costa said counties rely on that money to address specific issues and some money must go toward services such as domestic violence services and a rape crisis center.

“We need to provide services but we are not wanting to grow the budget out of control,” Costa said.

The Senate Democratic plan restores basic and higher education funding, restores human services programs, maintains the tobacco settlement fund and ensures funds are used for health care, funds adult basic programs and maintains core Department of Community and Economic Development programs with track records of success.

Their plan also includes PA WORKS, a job creation, training and economic investment strategy for the state.

Costa said the plan is what the Senate Democrats would propose if they had to create a $27.3 billion budget.

Kasunic pointed out that the current year budget is at $28.2 billion budget, so it is a reduction.

In the budget plan, targeted investments and other issues such as taxes and lending are suggested to help small businesses.

Kasunic said the biggest complaint of small businesses is the streamlining process to get state money. He said most small businesses either give up or don’t pursue state money.

While three state agencies now handle workforce training, it should be trimmed to one, Costa said.

“We can’t just take a hatchet to programs. We should keep the ones that work and tweak or eliminate others,” Costa said.

Kasunic said people are being training for jobs they can’t land.

“We need to make sure we’re training people for real jobs,” Kasunic said, adding that programs should be tracked to ensure they are successful.

Both lawmakers mentioned the windfall of jobs because of the booming natural gas industry as a result of the reserves in the Marcellus shale. Kasunic said more Pennsylvanians should be working in the industry, adding that he wants to see fewer out-of-state license plates.

Costa and Kasunic agreed that there should be some type of a tax on companies drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale, and that the money should go to communities for infrastructure and to emergency responders for training.

Kasunic said the coal industry pays an amount for every ton of coal that is mined and it goes back to the state for reclamation and acid mine drainage remediation. He said a similar fund is needed based on each cubic foot taken from each gas well.

“We can pass as many regulations as we want, there are going to be accidents,” Kasunic said.

Costa said he expects a local impact fee to be introduced, and there should be a vote on it before the end of the month.

“My personal opinion is that it is best not to put the money in the general fund,” Kasunic said.

The impact fee would be done through the Public Utility Commission.

Kasunic said a recent poll showed that 70 percent of people agree there should be some sort of tax or fee on natural gas drillers.

Costa said the public wants to impose a tax and the industry understands that but won’t do it until told to do it.

Costa also said that Corbett’s budget uses tobacco settlement money, which for the last 10 years has been used exclusively for health-care areas and has been handled outside of the state budget. In his proposal, Corbett puts the money in the budget and doesn’t use all of it for health care, which isn’t acceptable to Costa.

Kasunic called Corbett’s proposal to not use all the funding as promised “ludicrous” for hospitals.

“We will be seeing hospitals closing doors,” Kasunic said.