A hundred million here. A hundred million there. Pretty soon it adds up to real money. Once you do add up all the pluses and minuses, overall the state will spend $962 million less this year (minus 3.4 percent).
But that doesn't tell the whole story.
The budget story this year has been framed by two issues: Will it pass on time? Why is Corbett picking on education?
But, the larger issue the state had to confront was how to make up for a hole left by the end of federal stimulus money.
Last year, the state got $3 billion in stimulus money from Washington and then-Gov. Ed Rendell used most of it to prop up education and welfare programs. Everyone knew then that the money would disappear this year, and it did.
In the end, the legislature decided those departments that benefited the most from the federal stimulus dollars would lose the most. They were not very successful at the Department of Public Welfare because so much of its spending is driven by formulas determined by outside forces; i.e., the number of poor people.
Corbett took a major whack at state funding for higher education, to the consternation of the state-owned colleges and Lincoln, Penn State, Pitt, and Temple. He wanted to cut state funding to these institutions 50 percent. The legislature intervened and threw more money into that pot, but spending in this category is still down 21 percent. (Last year, these so-called nonpreferred appropriations got $657 million from the state. This year they will get $514 million.)
The schools will make part of that up with tuition increases. The state-owned schools (West Chester, Kutztown, Cheyney, etc.) already announced a 7.5 percent increase in tuition for the next school year.
