Jul. 14, 2016
HARRISBURG – The House voted to pass several code bills which served as the final pieces of the 2016-17 budget, said Rep. Craig Staats (R-Bucks). Included in the package was the tax code (
House Bill 1198), the education code (
House Bill 1605) and the fiscal code (
House Bill 1606). Staats opposed the tax code and supported the education and fiscal codes.
“I am pleased that we were able to deliver a budget in a timely fashion without threatening our schools and human service agencies with a prolonged impasse. This is a fair and reasonable budget which includes increased education funding and also invests $15 million to combat our state’s opioid epidemic,” said Staats.
Working to control costs, the House cut $675 million from the governor’s welfare programs. The new $31.6 billion spending plan includes $ 11.5 billion for PreK-12 education without the need for increased income or sales taxes.
“Ultimately, I was not able to support our tax code because of the increased taxes on tobacco, digital downloads and other items. Although the tax code included many positive initiatives, including tax amnesty and business-friendly tax incentives for manufacturing, I could not vote for any bill that raised taxes on goods purchased by thousands of Pennsylvanians on a daily basis,” said Staats.
All school districts in the 145th Legislative District will receive additional state funding, totaling $1 million, under the spending plan for basic education, special education and Ready to Learn Block Grants. The state budget also provides the state’s share of district Social Security and pension expenses.
Locally, this year’s budget would provide school districts the following funding:
• Quakertown – $9.8 million, a funding increase of $424,170.
• Pennridge – $10.6 million, a funding increase of $474,554.
• Palisades – $3 million, a funding increase of $101,543.
The budget-related bills were signed by Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday evening.
Representative Craig Staats
145th Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Morgan Dux
717.260.6695
mdux@pahousegop.com
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