Dec. 28, 2015
HARRISBURG – A responsible state budget bill that increases funding to public education and fully supports human services with no broad-based tax increases is now on the governor’s desk, and Rep. Cris Dush (R-Jefferson/Indiana) is calling on him to sign it immediately.
“For the fifth time during the past six months we’re giving the governor the opportunity to get a responsible increase in funding to schools and human service organizations.” said Dush. “I urge him to sign this responsible budget without delay in order to ensure that critical state funding finally gets out to our schools, human service agencies and other core government services.”
House Bill 1460 is a $30.3 billion spending plan that increases PreK-12 education to a record level of $405 million, including:
• $100 million more for Basic Education Funding.
• $50 million more for Ready-to-Learn Block Grants.
• $25 million more for Pre-K Counts and $5 million more for Head Start to help serve approximately 3,500 additional children.
• $30 million more for special education.
• Accelerated School Construction Investment Program to expedite the disbursement of $2.5 billion in bond funds for school construction projects.
“For most of this year, the governor has been demanding massive tax increases that exceed those that have occurred in all of the remaining 49 states combined,” said Dush. “That attempt has caused taxpayers to strongly object through the members of the House who are more closely connected with their constituents. Since the governor has now scaled back on the hard core rhetoric and recently notified the Department of Community and Economic Development to release approval letters to companies that have been waiting to send Educational Improvement Tax Credit grant monies to schools, I’m encouraged that our schools, human service agencies and county governments may soon be receiving the necessary funding to focus on the people they serve.”
The governor can either sign the budget, veto it, veto certain items within the budget or let it become law without his signature after 10 days.
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Representative Cris Dush
66th Legislative District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Ty McCauslin
717.772.9979
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