I’d like you to jot down two dates.
One would be Feb. 5. That would be yesterday. Fat Tuesday. It could become Fat City for several Delaware County school districts if Ed Rendell gets his budget wish.
The other date is July 1. That’s almost five months away. That’s when, by law, Pennsylvania must have a new spending plan in place.
As they say to those still waiting for property tax reform, “Don’t put the house on it.”
Rendell yesterday rolled out $28 billion spending plan. He’s calling it a “slow-growth” plan in a “tight budget year.”
But it increases spending by more than 4 percent. That comes to about a billion dollars.
And he plans to do it without raising taxes, other than slapping a new 10-cent-a-pack levy on everybody’s favorite punching bag, cigarette smokers. Those funds largely would be earmarked for his Cover All Pennsylvanians health care plan.
There also is a “public benefits charge” on electricity use, amounting to 0.05 cents per killowatt hour. It would cost most people about 50 cents a month. That money would go into his energy plan.
The big winner here, unquestionably, is education. Rendell is heeding the call of a special costing-out study delivered last fall that pointed out the state is woefully underfunding education.
The governor wants to increase education funding to the tune of $291 million, nearly 6 percent. That would be the biggest hike in two decades. The costing-out study indicated the state needed to pump another $4.38 billion into education the level the playing field.
Among the districts looking at the biggest infusion in cash would be several in Delaware County. Upper Darby actually would see the biggest boost in the state, with a 22 percent hike. Other struggling districts also would see big spikes in state aid, including Southeast Delco at 17 percent, William Penn at 13 percent, and Interboro at 10 percent.
Talking about increasing education funding is one thing. Just ask Rep. Nick Micozzie. He’s been fighting this battle for years. A few years back he rolled out his Successful Schools Plan that would ease property taxes and increase other levies in an attempt both to make school funding more equitable and ease the burden of property taxes.
The plan went nowhere, as even Micozzie’s GOP colleagues from Delco gave the plan the cold shoulder.
Now it’s Rendell’s turn to tilt at this windmill.
Circle that date. July 1. And don’t be surprised if we’re still having this discussion in the last week of June.
One would be Feb. 5. That would be yesterday. Fat Tuesday. It could become Fat City for several Delaware County school districts if Ed Rendell gets his budget wish.
The other date is July 1. That’s almost five months away. That’s when, by law, Pennsylvania must have a new spending plan in place.
As they say to those still waiting for property tax reform, “Don’t put the house on it.”
Rendell yesterday rolled out $28 billion spending plan. He’s calling it a “slow-growth” plan in a “tight budget year.”
But it increases spending by more than 4 percent. That comes to about a billion dollars.
And he plans to do it without raising taxes, other than slapping a new 10-cent-a-pack levy on everybody’s favorite punching bag, cigarette smokers. Those funds largely would be earmarked for his Cover All Pennsylvanians health care plan.
There also is a “public benefits charge” on electricity use, amounting to 0.05 cents per killowatt hour. It would cost most people about 50 cents a month. That money would go into his energy plan.
The big winner here, unquestionably, is education. Rendell is heeding the call of a special costing-out study delivered last fall that pointed out the state is woefully underfunding education.
The governor wants to increase education funding to the tune of $291 million, nearly 6 percent. That would be the biggest hike in two decades. The costing-out study indicated the state needed to pump another $4.38 billion into education the level the playing field.
Among the districts looking at the biggest infusion in cash would be several in Delaware County. Upper Darby actually would see the biggest boost in the state, with a 22 percent hike. Other struggling districts also would see big spikes in state aid, including Southeast Delco at 17 percent, William Penn at 13 percent, and Interboro at 10 percent.
Talking about increasing education funding is one thing. Just ask Rep. Nick Micozzie. He’s been fighting this battle for years. A few years back he rolled out his Successful Schools Plan that would ease property taxes and increase other levies in an attempt both to make school funding more equitable and ease the burden of property taxes.
The plan went nowhere, as even Micozzie’s GOP colleagues from Delco gave the plan the cold shoulder.
Now it’s Rendell’s turn to tilt at this windmill.
Circle that date. July 1. And don’t be surprised if we’re still having this discussion in the last week of June.
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