Funding

WASHINGTON - A close look at the government shutdown-dodging agreement to cut federal spending by more than $38 billion reveals that lawmakers significantly eased the fiscal pain by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand, and going after programs President Obama had targeted anyway. Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs - Pell grants for poor college students, health research, and "Race to the Top" aid for public schools, among others - from Republican knives.

Barbara Trent has been a teacher for 42 years, including 23 spent corralling cute kindergartners at Cook-Wissahickon Elementary. To see her in action, a lone adult surrounded by scamps, is to be rendered instantly exhausted. Especially this fall, as schools like Cook contend with Gov. Corbett's budget cuts and the institutional chaos of the Philadelphia School District. "I had 17 students last year," Trent said wistfully last week when I popped into her remarkably controlled classroom.

Panic threatened for a time last week when members of the Northeast Philadelphia Cultural Council learned that no money had been allocated in the state's capital budget for work on the Furey Ellis Building, one of the newer structures on the grounds of the now-closed Philadelphia State Hospital. Their concerns were heightened when spokesmen for the Department of General Services, the state agency responsible for the hospital's buildings and grounds, reported that funding for Furey Ellis had been removed from the budget.

AS A union representative for SEPTA's locomotive engineers, I applaud the Daily News editorial support for full dedicated funding for SEPTA. Although dedicated funding enjoys strong bipartisan support from legislators in this five-county region, yes votes will also be necessary from those who are not normally sympathetic to the needs of Philadelphia or SEPTA. In order to win their support, several pervasive SEPTA "myths" need to be aggressively countered with the facts. SEPTA is not a bloated bureaucracy that would misspend any dedicated funding increases.

The debate was heated, the stakes high, the question agonizingly familiar: Would SEPTA raise fares? When a majority of the SEPTA board voted yes recently, the decision was predicated on an expectation that next year, things would be different. Next year, state politicians would set aside a predictable and secure funding base for SEPTA, so it could avoid the further decay of its system or the frustrating budget dilemmas of this spring. Only one problem with that expectation: Some of the state's leading politicians have yet to promise they will try to make it come true.

If the local business community comes through with funding, the more than 3,000 school-age children in Voorhees Township may get a new playground. The Voorhees Township Committee last Monday agreed to provide the Osage Parent Faculty group with $5,000 toward the purchase of the playground, which would be next door to the Osage Elementary School on Burnt Mill Road. The design of the playground would be similar to one constructed at the Clara Barton school in Cherry Hill last year, according Linda Nichols, a member of the parent-teacher group.

Under the threat of losing their baseball team, Allegheny County officials are close to completing a plan to provide public funding for new stadiums for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers. The plan, which could be announced as early as next week, would not only provide a local contribution for the two stadium-starved teams; it would trigger a promise by Gov. Ridge to kick in the state's portion of the funding and provide a blueprint to a solution for the Phillies and Eagles. Only the state's contribution would be left to complete the financing mix of local, state and private sources that a governor's task force has said would be necessary to fund stadium construction in Pennsylvania.

A settlement was worked out last night under which the state will resume funding the beleaguered HealthPass program for 82,000 Medicaid patients in South and West Philadelphia. A tangle of lawsuits and bureaucratic battles over the $750.5 million contract ended in a compromise after more than a week of negotiations among more than a dozen lawyers. The negotiations have been supervised by U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois since last Friday. "It's a shame. This same agreement could have been worked out by reasonable men working together in a reasonable manner outside of court," said Anthony Welters, board chairman of Healthcare Management Alternatives, the firm that operates HealthPass.

Linda Redden's hopes for her son, Leslie, are similar to those of any other parent. She wants him to be the best he can be and derive self-esteem from accomplishments. She took steps to make sure her son achieved that goal when she moved from Philadelphia to Abington Township two years ago, so that Leslie, 11, could attend the RydalBrook school for special education students. Redden, along with other parents and local school officials, said she was relieved that $99 million in special education funds owed to school districts throughout the state was appropriated in the state budget passed July 1. "Certainly, I'm relieved that the funding is in and that there won't be a fight," said Redden, 38. "But every year it seems like there is some type of dilemma.

A senior citizens' apartment complex proposed for Barrington cleared a major hurdle yesterday when the Camden County freeholders voted, 6-0, to guarantee $8.5 million in public financing. For weeks, the freeholders had debated whether to support the project, which would consist of four 71-unit buildings to be developed by Joseph Rodi, John Gasparre and John Stern. While Republicans backed the proposal, some Democrats seemed hesitant. The election of Republican Millard Wilkinson Jr. to an unexpired freeholder term two weeks ago and his swearing-in last week appeared to provide the project with the deciding favorable vote.

For several years, even as the Camden city administration warned that it was unable to financially support its police department, more than half of $12 million in federal and state grants that poured in during that time lay unused. Most of that money couldn't be used because the city failed to keep police staffing at levels required by the grants. But more than $500,000 in grant money that the city was free to use sat around for two years until recently when the police department purchased various items, including new cars, portable radios, and tires, according to an Inquirer analysis of police-related grants the city has received since 2009.

Shayla Evermon-Muniz, a student at Nebinger School, was vocal in more ways than one at City Hall on Thursday morning. After singing Mariah Carey's "Hero" outside City Council chambers, Shayla, 10, talked about how education has accommodated her love for arts and music. If those programs were cut from the Philadelphia public schools, "I would never come back to school," she said. "Music is a big part of my life, and so is drawing. " Shayla and two other students joined civic activists to push for more funding for the Philadelphia School District.

It remains unclear whether a bronze Percheron might someday gaze out on Moorestown's business district, but a park honoring the breed of gentle workhorse now seems nearly certain. The nonprofit group Friends of Percheron Park reported that it raised an estimated $50,000 at a fund-raising gala on Tuesday, and that landscaping for the little park could begin this fall. A life-size statue of a Percheron, if it comes, "won't be standing in mud," publicity chair Julie Maravich said Wednesday.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - A plan to turn Mali into a stable democracy rather than a terrorist haven drew massive support Wednesday as various nations and international groups pledged $4.22 billion to help reconstruct the West African nation. The objective of the donors' conference in Brussels had been to raise $2.6 billion to support a $5.6 billion plan drafted by Malian officials aimed at helping what many observers view as a failed state reemerge as a stable, secure democracy. By Wednesday evening, the pledges made far exceeded that goal.

George Layng Pew Jr., 77, of Villanova and Boothbay Harbor, Maine, a dedicated fund-raiser and volunteer for Yale University, died Wednesday, May 8, of a heart ailment at his Main Line home. Born in Bryn Mawr, Mr. Pew was a member of a famed Philadelphia family. He is a descendant of Thomas Pew, brother of Joseph Newton Pew Sr., who in 1890 founded Sun Oil Co. Mr. Pew traced his line to J. Edgar Pew, the founder's nephew and the former head of the production department at Sun, said his wife, Sally Chinn Pew. The son of George L. Pew, Sr., and Catharine Anspach Pew,  he graduated from the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass., in 1954 and Yale College in 1958.

THE CAUSES of poverty are complex and many. One cause, though, is emerging as a dominant factor in the record numbers of people living in poverty: Congress. This week, both the Senate and the House moved on a new farm bill, which determines the budget and policies for agriculture every five years or so. In addition to agriculture, it also funds the food-stamp program. On Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee approved a $940 billion farm bill, a day after the Senate approved its own version.

WASHINGTON - With no broader budget deal in sight, a key House panel responsible for implementing sweeping cuts to agency budgets moved Wednesday to exempt veterans and largely protect spending on border safety and other homeland security programs in the coming year. The strategy by the pragmatic House Appropriations Committee is to begin advancing a handful of its 12 yearly spending bills even as Republicans controlling the House and President Obama are at an impasse over how much to lay out on the government's day-to-day operations.

THE JOHN S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded a total of $200,000 for community projects to 20 members of the Philadelphia chapter of Black Male Engagement (BMe). BMe was launched in Philly and Detroit in 2011, with the goal of creating a network of black men who do positive work in their communities. Another chapter later was added in Baltimore. Each of the 20 Philly members who will receive the funding won a BMe leadership award. A full list of the recipients - who range from a school principal to a college student - and the good work they plan to do with the money can be found at bmecommunity.org.

There is no doubt that many New Jersey towns have dragged their feet on spending affordable-housing funds. But that doesn't give the Christie administration the right to seize millions intended to help more families afford homes. Between $150 million and $200 million in housing money is thought to be at risk if Gov. Christie is allowed to have his way with municipalities' affordable-housing trust funds. That's enough to build or renovate more than 3,000 homes. Lawmakers should block Christie's maneuver by passing legislation to give towns more time to use the money.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - After an office manager for New Jersey City University admitted embezzling $486,000 in student funds three years ago, the U.S. Department of Education began auditing the use of all federal money by the state college. It soon discovered that $608,766 in federally subsidized loans and grant money had been improperly awarded by the school - in some cases to students who flunked out or never showed up to class, making them ineligible for financial assistance. An examination of federal Department of Education records by The Star-Ledger of Newark shows that NJCU was not the only state college in New Jersey cited for giving too much money to students who were either ineligible for the aid or whose financial need was overestimated.