The Senate, House and Gov. Wolf reached a bipartisan agreement Thursday on a $31.996 billion General Fund budget-- House Bill 218 (Saylor-R-York)-- which the Senate (43-7) and House (173-27) passed Friday and sent to the Governor.
The budget includes more money for schools, pension obligations and services, but demands across-the-board cuts state government agencies and in Medicaid.
It fails to address a any environmental funding shortfalls, including in DEP’s Safe Drinking Water Program criticized by EPA for failing to have the resources to meet minimum federal requirements for inspections and other obligations.
DEP’s General Fund budget in the new year-- $147.7 million-- is $17.9 million BELOW what it was in 1994-95-- $165.6 million and 40 percent BELOW what it was in 2002-03-- $245.6 million.
This means DEP will have to continue to rely on permit fee increases to fund its programs.
At the same time, House and Senate give themselves a 4.8 percent raise in the new year. That means their budget has increased 77 percent since FY 1994-95-- $182.9 million in 1994-95 to $325.2 million in the new fiscal year ($142.3 million) and 26 percent since 2002-03 from $258.1 million to $325.1 million ($67 million). Plus a $118 million balance left from FY 2015-16.
Since 2002-03, the General Assembly cut DEP's General Fund budget 40 percent.
The FY 2017-18 spending plan also has a $2 billion hole to fill and there is no agreement on how to fill it. The Senate and House will vote the General Fund budget bill today-- House Bill 218 (Saylor-R-York) and come back after July 4 to figure that out.
Click Here for more on the options for filling the budget hole, including transfers from special funds.
Gov. Wolf proposed a $32.3 billion budget in February and the House Republicans passed a $31.52 billion budget in April, the same total as in FY 2016-17.
Some other budget highlights include--
-- DEP: slight decrease from $148.3 million to $147.7 million, that’s higher than the Republican-passed budget in April of $139.3 million.
-- Personnel line-items essentially level funded
-- Conservation Districts same as last year $2.5 million
-- West Nile Virus & Zika Virus slight cut $5.3 million to $5.2 million
-- Black Fly same as last year $3.3 million
-- Susquehanna River Basin Commission cut in half $473,000 to $237,000
-- Delaware River Basin Commission cut in half $434,000 to $217,000
-- Interstate Commission On The Potomac River cut in half $46,000 to $23,000-- Chesapeake Bay Commission same as last year $275,000
-- DCNR: Slight decrease from $106.9 million to $105.5 million, that’s higher than the House Republican-passed budget, but primarily due to a significant increase in using General Fund monies to fund agency operations, rather than the Oil and Gas Lease Fund monies. There is still a $4.7 million transfer from the Lease Fund to support DCNR operations (not shown on budget spreadsheet) that will increase their overall budget. There is a total transfer of $61.2 million from the Fund-- $11.2 million of that to pay for DCNR State Parks and Forestry operations and $50 million to fund recreation and conservation projects (page 366, House Bill 218).
-- Heritage Parks same as last year $2.875 million
-- Agriculture: Slight increase from $143.6 million to $144.1 million, that’s higher than the House Republican-passed budget in April, but due primarily to $30 million in funding for the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School
-- Conservation Districts same as last year - $869,000
-- Nutrient Management Fund same as last year - $2.7 million
Click Here for the FY 2017-18 budget spreadsheet. Click Here for summary of DCNR, DEP budget. Click Here for Agriculture budget summary. Both from Senate Democratic Caucus.
What’s Next
The Senate, House and Gov. Wolf have to now agree on about $2 billion in new revenue in some form to make the FY 2017-18 budget balance. As a result, all the same options talked about of the last few weeks and months are still on the table-- massive state borrowing, gaming expansion, further liquor privatization and Tax Code.
In more detail they are--
-- Special Fund transfers to the General Fund that House or Senate members believe are just sitting there “flush with cash” and not doing anything better;
-- Sell or lease out state assets like the Farm Show Building or something else;
-- Borrow $1.5 billion against tobacco settlement revenue or securitize some other revenue stream to pay for paperclips and fill the General Fund revenue hole;
-- Approve 40,000 video gaming terminals for everyone with a liquor license (bars, nursing homes and churches);
-- Extend the state Sales Tax to warehousing and storage;
-- Redirect the local share of the present casino tax revenues to the state General Fund, along with adopt new casino license fees;
-- Authorize beer, wine and spirits sales in more private outlets; and
-- Shift the Sales Tax on bottles of wine and spirits from the bottle bought by liquor license holders to the individual drink bought by consumers.
We’ll see what happens!
Click Here for the FY 2017-18 budget spreadsheet. Click Here for summary of DCNR, DEP budget. Click Here for Agriculture budget summary. Both from Senate Democratic Caucus.
[Note: The budget situation is fluid and this article will be updated as new information becomes available.]
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