PENNSYLVANIA Funding logjam puts schools in a pinch

Republican legislators are in no hurry to vote on the measure.
By MARTHA RAFFAELE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARRISBURG -- One-third of the way into a fiscal year in which Pennsylvania's 501 school districts have had to forgo their state funding, an education funding bill that Gov. Ed Rendell would sign has just begun to move through the Legislature.
The bill contains roughly $4.6 billion for public schools, including $250 million for initiatives such as early childhood education and tutoring programs, and passed the House early last week.
The new initiatives are included in a $1.1 billion package of new spending passed last week that would be financed by a permanent 11 percent boost to the state's 2.8 percent personal income tax and other tax and fee increases.
The plan is now in the hands of the Republican-controlled Senate, where both parties have promised to lower the cost to taxpayers and GOP leaders are in no hurry to vote -- even if it means holding up a second school-funding installment that is supposed to be sent to districts Thursday.
"When we're totally excluded from the [negotiations] process, we will not be pressured," Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair, said hours after the vote.
No more compromising
One day after the House vote, Rendell, who originally sought $560 million in education initiatives, declared that he had compromised enough on that item and would not accept less money.
Rendell's spokeswoman, Kate Philips, rejected the notion that the governor's line in the sand could create another logjam in a budget process that has moved in fits and starts for months, leaving Pennsylvania as the only state without a completed spending plan for the current fiscal year.
The governor will, however, negotiate other parts of the funding package, such as the hundreds of millions earmarked for "community revitalization" grants coveted by lawmakers for local projects -- a perennial bargaining chip at budget time -- and funds for libraries, drug and alcohol treatment programs, and other programs whose budgets were cut earlier this year, she said.
"He's compromised his program into more than half of its original value, and he thinks that's significant," Philips said. "These programs need funding to work, and they need to be implemented in a comprehensive manner. I don't believe there is a logjam, because there is room to negotiate."
Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill, R-Lebanon, credits the GOP's hard line against Rendell's original price tag for the reduced amount approved by the House.
Schools struggle
In the meantime, the schools remain open with the help of local property tax revenue, cash reserves, or borrowed money. About 20 percent of the school districts are in "imminent danger" of running out of funds and may have to consider borrowing or postponing bill payments to maintain their cash flow, said Jay Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials.
But Rendell has promised contingency funding that would not need legislative approval in a worst-case scenario, and the districts are trying to tough it out, Himes said.
"We're still willing to suffer through some short-term pain for some long-term gain. School officials have been rather patient," the governor said.
At least one school district has formalized a date it would have to close if the Legislature does not send Rendell a final plan. School directors in the New Brighton School District passed a resolution saying schools would shut down Dec. 31 without state funding, which accounts for 63 percent of its operating budget.
XMartha Raffaele covers education for The Associated Press in Harrisburg.