Mar. 16, 2016
HARRISBURG – Rep. Duane Milne (R-Chester) voted today to fill the funding gap in education and other services that has lingered as a result of the governor’s earlier budget vetoes.
The House passed the legislation, which would increase basic education spending by $200 million over the 2014-15 budget. Total spending this fiscal year will equal $30.03 billion and result in no new taxes if the supplemental budget is enacted. Having previously passed the Senate, that bill now goes to Gov. Tom Wolf.
Milne, himself a teacher at West Chester University’s Department of Political Science and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, noted the Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees a “thorough and efficient” education system. He urged the governor to meet that obligation and approve the legislation.
“Concern for students, for vulnerable residents and for fiscal responsibility behoove him to sign this bill,” Milne said. “It is too late in the game – and it has been for almost nine months – to push the Commonwealth’s responsibility for our children, our teachers and our state Constitution down the road any further.”
On June 30 of last year, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a balanced budget plan containing no tax increases as well as a record investment in preK-12 education of $10.6 billion. Legislators followed up the governor’s veto of that bill with a four-month emergency funding bill on Sept. 24 which the governor also vetoed because he “wants a fight” on enacting historically large increases in the state sales and income taxes. After further negotiations, a House budget proposal totaling $30.3 billion arrived on Wolf’s desk in December.
The governor signed that proposal but used his line-item veto power to cancel parts of it totaling over $6 billion, hoping lawmakers would later acquiesce to his demand for higher taxes and higher spending. Some state funds again began flowing to schools and human-service providers, but crucial revenue would again be withheld. Most glaringly, Wolf only approved school funding to cover the first half of the school year.
In addition to restoring basic education funding, the supplemental budget restores funding for state-supported colleges and universities, hospitals and child advocacy centers, all severely cut by the governor’s vetoes.
“The people of Pennsylvania are rightly clamoring for this budget impasse to end so that educational and other basic needs are met,” Milne said. “This legislation achieves that without burdening our families, workers and job creators with higher taxes. It deserves enactment.”
Representative Duane Milne
167th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: David Foster
267-207-0207
dfoster@pahousegop.com
DuaneMilne.com