By Cody Straub-
Governor Tom Corbett released his proposed budget for Pennsylvania on Tuesday. As expected, it slashed funds to many state-run organizations that will affect students and staff at Penn Manor.
Overall Corbett expects the state budget to total $27.14 billion, which is $20 million less than the previous year’s budget. Major fund cutting is in store for areas like education, public libraries, welfare, the Environmental Protection agency, Military and Veteran Affairs, and the executive offices among other state organizations.
Some good news for PA residents is that higher taxes are not in Corbett’s plans this year.
But, state residents will have to shell out money in other areas.
College bound students or current college students will most likely see another increase in tuition on top of the five to ten percent increase from last year.
In Corbett’s budget 20 percent of funds for the 14 state-owned universities will be cut, including 30 percent from Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh and Temple University.
“It’s encouraging more people not to go to college, which is going to make America a lot more dumb,” said senior Janelle Musser, who plans on attending a state college.
The funds for public education – kindergarten through grade twelve will be cut in some areas and was increased slightly in some categories. But with higher costs for public schools it may not be enough for school districts to avoid raising taxes.
“We have a fiscally prepared budget plan, so I think we will be ready for any budget cut the governor throws at us,” said Penn Manor Principal Jason D’Amico.
Many are upset about the cuts to public education.
“The governor is continuing down the ill-advised budget path he charted last year that pushes more and more of the costs of our public schools onto the backs of local taxpayers,” said Ted Kirsch, President of Pennsylvania American Teachers Federation in a recent article on MSNBC.
“While the governor may be taking a smaller step backward than he did in his first budget, he is still moving in the wrong direction,” Kirsch added.
He is referring to the fact that last year Corbett cut funding for k-12 education, and while this year he increased the budget Kirsch does not feel it is enough.
While Corbett is cutting welfare and higher education budgets he decided that it is necessary to increase the funding of the PA Game Commission for the sport of hunting.
Along with an increase for the Game Commission, Corbett also decided to increase funding for probation and parole.
The state Department of Corrections, after seeing an increase in funding last year, was one of the few organizations that did not see a decrease in funds in this year’s budget.
Feature photo courtesy of Post-Gazette.com