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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup December 23, 2015:
"Everyone needs a way
out of this." House abruptly changes course on #PAbudget
“We can’t send a budget bill
to the governor without the Tax Code bill to pay for it, the governor’s not
legally able to sign that bill, so we do need that to be able to send the
budget bill to the governor,” he explained.
He stated the House, barring constitutional and rules delays in terms of
procedure, could potentially get the full package to the governor as soon as
Wednesday if the Senate were to act on a tax plan when they return to session
Wednesday."
Reed: “We have
to wait and see what the Senate does tomorrow” before House will take up budget
bill
The PLS
Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Tuesday, December
22, 2015
As the
latest chapter in Pennsylvania’s 175-day long budget saga continued to unfold
on the Tuesday before Christmas, House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-Indiana)
gave pause to some optimistic the plan could land on the governor’s desk by
Wednesday, saying the chamber will not call up the $30.788 billion budget bill
without agreement on a pension and tax bill first. “We’re
waiting to hear form the Senate whether they have an agreement on pension with
the administration and the House Democrats and we still have not seen a Tax
Code bill to pay for that General Appropriations bill, so as soon as we see
those products from the Senate, we are ready to move forward,” he said. “If the
Senate’s prepared with those products ready to go and has agreement ready to
go, as soon as they give them to us, we’re ready to go to.” According
to Rep. Reed, the rationale behind holding up the spending bill is that it
would be unconstitutional for the governor so sign a spending plan that is out
of balance.
Procedural
gymnastics leads to budget framework revival
The PLS
Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Tuesday, December
22, 2015
After
motions to revert, reconsideration of the vote on said motion, and an unusual
roll call vote on second consideration, the once dead budget framework rose
like a phoenix Tuesday afternoon in a spectacle that could land a $30.788
billion budget on Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk by Wednesday. The
whole thing started with an amendment to the temporary budget rule encapsulated
in House Resolution 627. The original
temporary rule would have required two-thirds of the House to approve a motion
to revert to the prior printer number and would have possibly placed such a
motion out of order. The amendment to
the rule placed a motion to revert to the immediately prior printer number
always in order and only required a majority of members in attendance to
approve the motion to revert. In
adopting the amendment 107-91, 24 Republicans joined with all 83 Democrats in
attendance to allow the bill to be reverted back to the framework budget number
of $30.788 billion instead of the stopgap emergency funding amount of $28.23
billion encapsulated in the current version.
After a two hour break, the House returned to vote on the motion to
revert, which was approved by a much narrower margin of 100-99.
"Believe me -- many,
many members who voted 'no' in there are very glad this happened," said Taylor
WHYY Newsworks
BY MARY WILSON DECEMBER
23, 2015
A Pennsylvania budget
agreement is one step from the governor's desk, after a series of parliamentary
moves in the House positioned a $30.8 billion spending plan for a final vote
Wednesday. Nearly 20 Republicans joined
with Democrats Tuesday afternoon in a preliminary vote to support the proposal
backed by the Senate and Gov. Tom Wolf. It
was a stunning course reversal by the House, where the Republican majority had
begun readying a short-term spending plan, all but abandoning efforts to reach
a compromise on a full-year's budget. It
was a Philadelphia Republican who initiated the move to resurrect the budget
agreement that the House had previously rejected. "It's basically sitting around and
saying to one another, like, look ... what parliamentary maneuver can we do to
put this back on track?" said Rep. John Taylor, R-Philadelphia. He spoke
to reporters shortly after the House voted 100-97 to position the budget bill
for a final House vote on Wednesday. A temporary rule adopted by the House on
Tuesday allowed the bill to advance with a simple majority vote, instead of the
usual required sum of 102 votes.
"Seventeen Republicans
broke with their leadership, who had favored the temporary stopgap measure, and
joined with the chamber’s 83 Democrats.
“This isn't exactly how I
predicted today to turn out,” said House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana,
speaking after the vote."
House abruptly changes course on state
budget
By Kate
Giammarise / Post-Gazette Harrisburg
Bureau December 22, 2015 7:22 PM
Roll Call Vote Senate
Bill 1073 PN 1459
House
of Representatives Session of 2015 - 2016 Regular Session Details for RCS# 1048
Tuesday
Dec. 22, 2015 4:03PM
AGREE TO
ON SECOND CONSIDERATION
Gov. Wolf:
"I’m pleased with the progress made in the House today"
The PLS
Reporter Author: Alanna Koll/Tuesday, December 22,
2015 Video runtime :28
Gov.
Wolf made brief remarks after the House voted to replace stopgap budget with
Senate-approved budget.
A Hail Mary in
the House - and a #PaBudget, if they can keep it: Analysis
Penn
Live By John
L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
December 22, 2015 at 5:01 PM, updated December 22, 2015 at 6:33 PM
Somewhere,
the ghosts of the Byzantines are shaking their heads at the Pennsylvania House
of Representatives. Republican
insurgents, joined by Democrats who support the $30.8 billion
"framework" budget, pulled a parliamentary rabbit out of their hats
on Tuesday, setting
up a vote, likely on Wednesday, that could finally end the state's
six-month-old budget stalemate. But stay
with me on this one, because it gets complicated fast. On Monday night, hours after the House
Appropriations Committee amended the $30.8 billion, Senate-approved budget,replacing it with an 11-month, $28.1 billion
"stopgap" plan, framework backers began hatching plans to undo
the stopgap plan.
Finally, the Pa.
Penn
Live By Jan
Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
December 22, 2015 at 6:00 PM, updated December 22, 2015 at 10:19 PM
Some may
call what happened in the state House on Tuesday the Miracle on Third Street .
The
House went into the day making people believe it was going to be moving a $28.2 billion stopgap budget into
position for a final vote possibly on Wednesday. They decided to tee up a $30.8 billion Senate-passed budget bill for a
vote instead. If it passes the
House, it would go to Gov. Tom Wolf for enactment, ending a nearly
six-month-long budget impasse that has held up state funding for school
districts, counties and social services. That could be part of a marathon
session that includes votes in both chambers on the budget bill, a tax bill to
fund it, an amended pension bill that the House rejected on Saturday, and
fiscal, school, and administrative codes.
Final
House Vote On Budget Bill May Not Happen Today, Wednesday NewsClips
Capitol
Digest Blog by Crisci Associates December 23, 2015
In a
dramatic 100 to 99 vote, the full House Tuesday voted to revert to the Senate’s
“agreed-to” $30.8 billion General Fund budget bill-- Senate
Bill 1073 (Browne-R-Lehigh)-- and then voted 100 to 97 to move the bill up
for a final vote Wednesday. If
the House passes the bill Wednesday, it could be on the Governor’s desk for his
action immediately. House Majority
Leader David
Reed (R-Indiana) told reporters later Tuesday evening said the House can’t
send a General Fund budget bill to the Governor until there is a Tax Code bill
to pay for it. Reed said the House is
waiting for a Tax Code bill from the Senate as well as the outcome of negotiations
on a pension reform bill between the Senate and House Democrats.
The
Senate announced it is coming into voting session Wednesday at 1:00.
So will
there be a final vote today in the House? Time will tell.
Budget stalemate crumbling, but key
disagreements remain
AP State
Wire Published: Today
Votes signal breakthrough in Pennsylvania
AP State Wire By MARC LEVY and MARK SCOLFORO Published: Yesterday
"We
still have a ways to go, but this was a nice step in the right direction,"
Wolf said. "So we'll see what happens tomorrow, and I'm hoping that we
continue the progress."
A Pa.
Philly.com
by Chris Palmer, HARRISBURG BUREAU Updated: DECEMBER 23, 2015 1:08
AM .
PPG Editorial: Capitol chaos: The Pa.
Post
Gazette By the Editorial Board December 23, 2015 12:00 AM
The
state House, which had promised to pass a stop-gap budget and nothing more,
gave the go-ahead Tuesday to the same spending plan that appeared dead last
week. Maybe.
After a
series of confusing, even questionable, procedural gimmicks, members voted
100-97 to send along the $30.78 billion budget that had been worked out by Gov.
Tom Wolf and leaders from both parties in the House and Senate, and
subsequently passed by the full Senate. House members on Tuesday seemed
justifiably confused about what they were being asked to do, and it boiled down
to this:
• No
stop-gap budget, which is a good thing because that would have deprived
Pennsylvanians of the predictability of a yearlong spending plan they’ve been
waiting for since July 1.
• A
budget that provides significantly more state dollars to fund public schools, a
key priority for Mr. Wolf, who campaigned and won the governorship on that
promise. That could be a good thing depending on how lawmakers intend to pay
for it.
• No
idea what the tax rates to support the plan will be. And that is a serious
problem, the result of closed-door discussions that led to a so-called
“framework” that was to include pension reform, changes to the state’s liquor
system and a budget.
Penn
Live By Charles
Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on December 22, 2015 at 10:57 PM, updated December 22, 2015 at 11:05 PM
on December 22, 2015 at 10:57 PM, updated December 22, 2015 at 11:05 PM
It was
another long, strange day on the Pennsylvania
state budget front. And at the end, it
appeared things stood pretty much where they were last Friday - with renewed
interest in the so-called $30.8 billion "framework" budget, but two or
three major hurdles left between here and the governors' desk. There was one singular achievement on the day
for Gov. Tom Wolf and his allies. For
the first time in this six-month fiscal siege, a significant number of Republican House members broke from
their majority on a recorded vote, creating a bipartisan coalition
that - if it holds - is strong enough to pass Democrat Wolf's preferred
spending plan and the tax increases needed to support it.
Congrats, Pa.
By John L. Micek |
jmicek@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
December 22, 2015 at 8:45 AM, updated December 22, 2015 at 8:51 AM
Good Tuesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
As the state House convenes this Tuesday to take up an 11-month, $28.1 billion stopgap funding package, members of the 203-member chamber will do so knowing that they've just tied the standing record for Pennsylvania's longest-ever budget impasse. For it was on this day, Dec. 22, 2003, that Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and the Republican-controlled General Assembly agreed to the final components of that year's state budget, breaking what was then the state's longest-ever budget impasse. The nine-month stand-off included a tax hike, as well as full funding for Pennsylvania school districts, whose appropriation Rendell had line-item vetoed to force lawmakers to the negotiating table. A budget for the rest of state government was already in place.
As the state House convenes this Tuesday to take up an 11-month, $28.1 billion stopgap funding package, members of the 203-member chamber will do so knowing that they've just tied the standing record for Pennsylvania's longest-ever budget impasse. For it was on this day, Dec. 22, 2003, that Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and the Republican-controlled General Assembly agreed to the final components of that year's state budget, breaking what was then the state's longest-ever budget impasse. The nine-month stand-off included a tax hike, as well as full funding for Pennsylvania school districts, whose appropriation Rendell had line-item vetoed to force lawmakers to the negotiating table. A budget for the rest of state government was already in place.
Gov. Wolf
calls latest stopgap budget attempt “a feel good exercise”
Author: Jason Gottesman/Tuesday, December
22, 2015/Categories: News and Views
Gov. Tom
Wolf made a scheduled appearance on KDKA 1020AM’s morning show to discuss the
state budget impasse and reaffirming his prior commitment to veto the 11-month
emergency stopgap funding plan the House Republican caucus is currently moving
through that chamber. During
the morning show appearance he, as on previous occasions with stopgap funding
measures, called the current attempt “a feel good exercise.” He made the comment while expressing his
sympathy for schools that might not reopen after Christmas break due to a lack
of state funding and an inability to get further loans to keep doors open. “I am so sympathetic and so saddened by that,
it should not have lasted this long,” he said of the budget impasse. “But, we need a budget that actually funds
those schools with real dollars and real revenue to back it up so that we have
a balanced budget that makes the investments that those schools need,” he
continued. “So, we can go through the
feel good exercise of saying we’re going to magically make some dollars appear
with 11-months’ worth of funding for 12-months’ worth of expenditures, but
everybody knows that the fundamental math doesn’t work. There’s no money.”
Blogger commentary: If
businesses made charitable donations to these private and religious schools
instead of diverting tax dollars this would not be an issue.
EITC/OSTC: Budget impasse
threatens school choice tuition discount
Sharon Herald Posted: Saturday,
December 19, 2015 7:00 am
The impact of the
state budget impasse on public schools is well documented. The squeeze it
threatens to put on private schools and their students has gone overlooked. With just about everything else tied up by
the budget impasse, Gov. Tom Wolf ordered that tax credits used to cover a
portion of private school tuition be tied up, too. The administration argues that the tax
credits are spelled out in the tax code, which is passed in tandem with a
budget.
Lawmakers and the
governor scrambled – and ultimately failed – to pull together a deal last week.
Unlike many artificial deadlines that the governor and lawmakers have ignored,
a hard deadline looms for the tax credits.
If they aren’t released by the end of the year, the tax credits cannot
be applied in 2015 to businesses that contribute to the program and operate on
a fiscal year that follows the actual calendar.
Without knowing the budget, the Department of Community and Economic
Development doesn’t know how much this year’s tax credits will be worth, said
Heidi Havens, a department spokeswoman. The
Educational Improvement Tax Credit program allows businesses to make up
$750,000 in donations to private schools or pre-kindergarten programs. Their
money defrays tuition costs for more than 50,000 students statewide.
The program helps
the poor but also benefits families well into the middle class. Families with
one child can qualify with household incomes up to $90,000. That amount goes up
$15,000 for each additional child.
Education Bloggers Daily
Highlights 12-23-15
Testing Resistance & Reform News: December 16 -
22, 2015
FairTest Submitted
by fairtest on December 22, 2015 - 1:27pm
President Obama's
signature on the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was barely dry when grassroots
activists began pressuring states to take advantage of their new power to
reduce testing overkill. Already New York and Oklahoma have responded
by walking back reliance on standardized exam scores to evaluate teachers.
PSBA New School Director
Training
School boards who will welcome new directors after the election should
plan to attend PSBA training to help everyone feel more confident right from
the start. This one-day event is targeted to help members learn the basics of
their new roles and responsibilities. Meet the friendly, knowledgeable PSBA
team and bring everyone on your “team of 10” to get on the same page fast.
- $150 per
registrant (No charge if your district has a LEARN Pass. Note: All-Access
members also have LEARN Pass.)
- One-hour lunch
on your own — bring your lunch, go to lunch, or we’ll bring a box lunch to
you; coffee/tea provided all day
- Course
materials available online or we’ll bring a printed copy to you for an
additional $25
- Registrants
receive one month of 100-level online courses for each registrant, after
the live class
Remaining
Locations:
- Butler area — Jan.
9 Midwestern IU 4, Grove City (note: location changed from Penn State New
Kensington)
- Allentown area —
Jan. 16 Lehigh Career & Technical Institute, Schnecksville
- Central PA — Jan.
30 Nittany Lion Inn, State College
- Delaware Co. IU 25
— Feb. 1
- Scranton area —
Feb. 6 Abington Heights SD, Clarks Summit
- North Central area
—Feb. 13 Mansfield University, Mansfield
Register here: https://www.psba.org/2015/09/new-school-director-training/
NSBA Advocacy
Institute 2016; January 24 - 26 in Washington ,
D.C.
Housing and meeting registration is open for Advocacy Institute 2016. The theme, “Election Year Politics & Public Schools,” celebrates the exciting year ahead for school board advocacy. Strong legislative programming will be paramount at this year’s conference in January. Visit www.nsba.org/advocacyinstitute for more information.
Housing and meeting registration is open for Advocacy Institute 2016. The theme, “Election Year Politics & Public Schools,” celebrates the exciting year ahead for school board advocacy. Strong legislative programming will be paramount at this year’s conference in January. Visit www.nsba.org/advocacyinstitute for more information.
Save
the Dates for These 2016 Annual EPLC Regional State Budget Education
Policy Forums
Sponsored
by The Education Policy and Leadership
Center
Thursday, February
11 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. - Harrisburg
Wednesday, February 17 - 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. -Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania )
Thursday, February 25 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. -Pittsburgh
Wednesday, February 17 - 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. -
Thursday, February 25 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. -
Invitation
and more details in January
PASBO 61st Annual
Conference and Exhibits March 8 - 11, 2016
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
The Network for Public Education 3rd
Annual National Conference April 16-17, 2016 Raleigh , North Carolina
The
Network for Public Education is thrilled to announce the location for our 3rd
Annual National Conference. On April 16 and 17, 2016 public education advocates
from across the country will gather in Raleigh, North Carolina. We chose Raleigh to highlight the tremendous
activist movement that is flourishing in North Carolina. No one exemplifies
that movement better than the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, who will be the
conference keynote speaker. Rev. Barber is the current president of the
North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the National NAACP chair of the
Legislative Political Action Committee, and the founder of Moral Mondays.
Interested in letting our
elected leadership know your thoughts on education funding, a severance tax,
property taxes and the budget?
Governor Tom Wolf,
(717) 787-2500
Speaker of the
House Rep. Mike Turzai, (717) 772-9943
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
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