Mar. 17, 2016
HARRISBURG – Rep. Kerry Benninghoff (R-Centre/Mifflin) today voted to release funding for the remaining 13 percent of the 2015-16 state budget. The supplemental budget includes an increase of more than $200 million for basic education, fully funds the Pennsylvania State University, restores cuts to agriculture and healthcare funding, and does not require new taxes or tax increases.
Benninghoff made the following statement after the vote:
“This supplemental budget spends within our ability to pay, closes out the 2015-16 books and drives out vital funding, all while investing millions more in basic education. The plan not only reverses Gov. Wolf’s education cuts, but increases funding for basic education. It restores the funding for agricultural research, critical access hospitals, burn centers and child advocacy centers, which was cut by Wolf’s veto pen, and increases higher education funding by 5 percent.
“It is time to move forward with the taxpayer dollars we have to spend. There is $6 billion sitting in the Pennsylvania Treasury, waiting to be dispersed back to our district. It is well beyond time to release this funding. We cannot allow our schools to close or people to lose their jobs, which is a very real and unacceptable possibility if this supplemental budget is not enacted.
“With sincerity and concern for the residents of the 171st District, I ask the governor to do the right thing, sign this supplemental budget into law and end the stalemate.”
For more information on the supplemental budget, visit
pahousegop.com.
Representative Kerry Benninghoff
House Majority Policy Committee Chairman
171st Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Morgan Wagner
717.260.6281
mwagner@pahousegop.com
KerryBenninghoff.com /
Facebook.com/RepBenninghoff