Funding

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is laying off 10 percent of its administrative staff. Seven employees in the arts center's marketing, development, programming, education, and facilities operations departments were told Tuesday they were being let go; another position will go unfilled. Ushers, stagehands, security, TicketPhiladelphia, and vice presidents were not among those laid off, Kimmel president Anne Ewers said. The staff reduction was a response to a combination of a challenging financial picture - lower rent from resident companies such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, reduced state funding, the depressed economy - and an evolving business plan, Ewers said.

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.

WASHINGTON - A trio of money men who helped President Obama bring in record donations for his reelection last year were tapped Friday for highly sought diplomatic assignments in Europe. John Emerson, a Los Angeles investment management executive who cochaired the campaign's Southern California finance team, will be nominated as the next U.S. ambassador to Germany. HBO executive James Costos, who helped raise more than $500,000 for Obama's reelection, is in line to be the ambassador to Spain.

In medicine, it's one thing to know that a treatment works, but quite another to know whether it's better than alternatives. How do doctors decide what's best? If the treatment in question involves a device, it could be relatively easy. The company that makes the device is happy to fund a study to test its device against other options. But what if the question is how quickly surgery should be done to get the best result after certain spinal injuries? No one benefits but the patient.

Philadelphia City Council members are a week away from their scheduled summer recess, and how they intend to find millions of dollars for a school district planning to lay off nearly 3,800 employees at the end of the month remains unclear. Council President Darrell L. Clarke did not call for a committee vote Wednesday on a bill to raise the liquor-by-the-drink tax, disappointing parents and school supporters who gave two hours of testimony urging approval. Clarke stopped short of saying the hike was dead, despite a lack of support among his colleagues and the clock's ticking toward the recess and the June 30 budget deadline.

DEAR HARRY: My employer has a pretty good pension plan to which it matches our contributions up to 4 percent of our salaries. A little while ago, I saw a study that said the cost of fund fees for a median-income earner over a period of 40 years averaged more than $75,000. As a result, I checked out the funds that were available in our plan, and I found out that they were almost all at the high end of the fee spectrum for similar funds in the same category (large cap, small cap, etc.). I don't want to create waves with my employer (we had a big layoff early in 2009)

WASHINGTON - Philanthropist and media mogul Oprah Winfrey is donating $12 million to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, officials announced Tuesday. Combined with the $1 million she gave in 2007, it is the museum's largest donation. In recognition, Winfrey's name will go on a 350-seat theater. The chairwoman and chief executive of the Oprah Winfrey Network has been a member of the museum's advisory council since 2004. "I am so proud of African American history and its contributions to our nation as a whole," Winfrey said in a statement.

IT WASN'T just any principals' meeting in Prince George's County back in 2011. At this one, principals were showered with a trove of goodies - including engraved watches in velvet pouches - courtesy of Uncle Sam. The Maryland school district, then headed by current Philly district Superintendent William R. Hite Jr., handed out $8,735 in gifts at the meeting, paid for by stimulus funds. The favors included the 145 watches, with a price tag of $2,565; 100 pens with USB devices totaling $2,631 (also engraved)

Gov. Corbett and the legislature know Philadelphia isn't the only school district in Pennsylvania facing a financial crisis. So why is it taking them so long to come up with a viable statewide solution? Already there have been teacher layoffs and other budget cuts. Academic and extracurricular programs have been eliminated, and class sizes have grown. The situation will only get worse unless the state lives up to its legal and moral obligation to provide its children with "a thorough and efficient education.

TRENTON - An appeals panel on Friday blocked the Christie administration's plan to take control of up to $200 million in funds held by municipalities for the construction of housing for the poor and disabled. The three-judge panel of the Appellate Division of Superior Court said towns must be given an opportunity to appeal, case by case, the administration's efforts to take the money, and it criticized the administration for not having given them the chance. The state Council on Affordable Housing has responsibility for overseeing the program, and on May 1 it wrote to municipal governments advising them of its intent to take control of unspent housing funds.

AFTER THE Center City building collapse that claimed six lives Wednesday, City Council raised questions yesterday about demolition regulations and sought to renew efforts to crack down on longtime vacant-property owners. Council President Darrell Clarke also called for additional resources for the Department of Licenses and Inspections. "I am heartened that the city is poised to increase funding to the Department of Licenses and Inspections, some of which will be used for more inspectors," Clarke said yesterday.

HARRISBURG - Philadelphia leaders launched a full-court press Tuesday on the General Assembly, seeking support for funding to cover the projected $304 million school budget shortfall. At separate news conferences, Mayor Nutter and City Controller Alan Butkovitz called on lawmakers to find money to stave off the school funding crisis as they head into the frenzied final lap toward the June 30 budget deadline. "We cannot and will not let the students down," said Nutter, who was joined by School Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. and representatives of charter schools in a show of support for all public schools.