Analysis of proposed PA 2014-15 Budget

Posted by on February 24, 2014

PA Budget 2014

This website offers analyses of Governor Corbett’s 2014-15 budget proposal prepared by staff of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.

Governor Tom Corbett proposed a 2014-15 budget of $29.4 billion — $927 million, or 3.3%, more than the current fiscal year.

The proposal provides additional funding for Pre-K-12 education, but restricts funds in a way that will make it hard to restore cuts made to the classroom in recent years.

For the third year, the budget level funds higher education, while adding $25 million for a new scholarship fund for middle-class families.

The budget foregoes the opportunity to expand Medicaid under the federal health care law, proposing instead a new “Healthy PA” program that will reduce health benefits for low-income working families and people with high health needs.

Despite starting out with a revenue deficit of more than $1 billion, the plan maintains another rate cut for the capital stock and franchise tax in 2015 and its full elimination in 2016.

The budget is balanced by relying on optimistic revenue growth, more than $1 billion in one-time funding sources, and far-from-certain changes to the state’s public pension systems. It also finds savings by cutting benefits for Medicaid enrollees under Healthy PA, and ends a moratorium in force since 2010 on drilling in state parks and forests.

Overall, this budget is very different than Governor Corbett’s first in 2011. A call for cutting spending has been replaced by new initiatives popular with the public. But without a sustainable approach to how it is funded and an end to unaffordable tax cuts, the initiatives proposed in this budget may be short-lived.

Read more at:  http://pennbpc.org/2014-15-Budget-Analysis