House+Budget+Vote+Reaction+Split+Down+Party+Lines

=By Patrick Cloonan = =//Published in the McKeesport Daily News//= =//5/25/11//= = = = = = As expected, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives pushed its version of a 2011-12 state budget to the Senate. = = "It is prioritized spending, it is responsible spending, and it does not increase taxes, it does not borrow and it will be done on time," said House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, in a statement issued after the 113-87 vote Tuesday evening. = = Also as expected, the Democratic minority called attention to reduced spending for public schools including an area district run directly by the state Department of Education. = = "This House Republican budget would be disastrous for students, parents and teachers in the Duquesne City School District," Rep. Marc J. Gergely said in one of two statements he issued. = = Specifically, the White Oak Democrat said, the House budget would slash total funding for Duquesne from $9.86 million to $6.28 million, including a $250,000 decrease in basic kindergarten-to-grade 12 funding and a $177,000 or 61 percent cut in Accountability Block Grant funding. = = "This budget spends $27.3 billion," Turzai said. "That is billions of dollars to help Pennsylvanians who need it and billions to help students." = = The House majority leader said it restores more than half a billion dollars to basic and higher education that was reduced in Gov. Tom Corbett's budget plan. = = Turzai said K-12 education would get a $210 million net increase compared to the governor's plan. = = "The state made a commitment to the people in the (Duquesne City) school district in 2007 to help keep the elementary and middle school open and this Republican budget eliminates that funding," Gergely said. = = Gergely also represents Duquesne and said the bill eliminates a $2 million enhanced basic subsidy that went to the state-controlled district in each of the past two years, $591,000 for charter school reimbursements, $100,000 for the Educational Assistance Program and a $474,000 school improvement grant. = = He said that $2 million enhanced subsidy made up part of the $2.6 million in tuition paid for students transferred to high schools in the East Allegheny and West Mifflin Area districts. = = "The funding has to come for (Duquesne from) somewhere," Gergely said. "The school can't print its own money." = = The vote came two days before Duquesne City's state-appointed Board of Control is to vote on a preliminary 2011-12 budget. State education officials promised at last month's BOC meeting that Duquesne Education Center would open in the fall. = = In a joint statement with Rep. Bill Kortz, D-Dravosburg, Gergely reiterated the Democratic assertion that the governor and House Republicans refused to tap available revenue streams. "Between the governor's new $2 billion Liberty Loan Program (Walking Around Money) fund, a refusal to consider a tax on Marcellus shale gas drilling and a refusal to close monstrous tax loopholes, this budget is just a big break to big business on the backs of working Pennsylvanians and children," Kortz said. = = Area Republicans could not be reached for comment after the vote. Earlier, however, both Reps. George Dunbar, R-Penn Township, and Rick Saccone, R-Elizabeth Township, rejected the idea of an extraction tax. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> "Proponents cling to it because it is their default solution for just about every revenue shortfall," Saccone said earlier this month. "Citizens who follow along with this tax-and-spend ideology suffer from several misunderstandings, the largest of which is that drilling companies contribute nothing to the economy." = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Gergely and Kortz also maintained as other Democrats that the state is in for a $1 billion revenue surplus, based on April figures that were $508 million over what was expected. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> "House Republicans have lined up behind a plan to keep the $1 billion surplus in the state's bank accounts to let our schools suffer," Gergely said. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In the Senate, Republicans hold a 30-20 edge. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> "The House Republican budget is just a toned-down version of Gov. Corbett's slash-and-burn budget," said Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa Jr., D-Forest Hills. = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> "I look forward to working with Republicans in the Senate to make significant changes to bring about a final state budget which reflects responsible spending without neglecting our responsibility to those Pennsylvanians who rely on us to be their voice in the legislature." = =<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Sen. James R. Brewster, D-McKeesport, proposed a 7 percent tax with credits of up to 2 percent. Revenue would be split between education, communities where drilling takes place and environmental needs. = <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Read more: __<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #003399; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">[|House budget vote reaction split down party lines - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] __ __<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #003399; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">[] __

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