“Status Quo” Budget Means Pennsylvania Children and Economy Won’t Grow
(Philadelphia, PA) February 05, 2013 – Governor Tom Corbett today proposed a 2013-14 budget that fails to move Pennsylvania forward by funding growth in student achievement and child well-being.
“The governor has proposed $1.8 billion in new recurring revenues to improve the condition of our roads and bridges,” says Donna Cooper, Executive Director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY). “He could have done the same to improve the condition of our children. Instead, this budget proposed a status quo budget that fails the test of helping kids.”
The $28.4 billion budget spends $441 million less for public school subsidies and the Accountability Block grant compared to when the governor took office. In fact, the budget restores less than one-tenth of the $1 billion cut made to basic education in 2010. (See attachment for Philadelphia data.) The continued underfunding of schools is alarming since 10 percent of the students in our region cannot read or do math at grade level, and many more fail to keep pace.
The modest increases in early childhood education are welcome, but they fail to make up for the previous cuts. In sum, this budget spends $107 million less on critical early learning and child care services compared to when the governor took office.
The state’s subsidized child care funds currently serve less than a third of the 116,553 children in the five-county region from working families. Pre-K Counts serves only 3,331 three- and ouryear-olds out of 50,800 in the region – in spite of the educational gains known to accompany Pre-K participation.
Health care for kids has not fared much better, as the proposed budget increases CHIP by $13.4 million, lifting enrollment by 9,300 children. Yet the program enrolls 6,200 fewer kids in need of insurance than one year ago. In Southeastern Pennsylvania alone, 39,000 children are without health insurance.
“This is a status quo budget when it comes to children and that’s simply bad for kids and bad for the economy” says Cooper. “The continued shortfall in state funding for critical children’s services simply shifts costs to local governments that are forced to raise property taxes on citizens and businesses. Eighty percent of school districts have raised taxes, 75 percent of districts have reduced opportunities, 15,000 jobs have been lost and key, targeted programs such as tutoring have been scaled back.”
With a $232 million surplus built into the proposed budget, the state has the option of investing more funding to meet the needs of our children. Revenues could be increased by hundreds of millions with the governor agreeing to expand Medicaid services in accord with the Affordable Care Act. Even after providing for the expanded medical services, at least $50 million per year is estimated to become available in new state revenue from gross receipts tax on Medicaid managed care plans for 2014-16.
Cooper notes that “It’s fair to say that this is a ‘status quo’ budget that undermines the state’s short and long-term prospects for economic growth.”