Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed cutting funding to Penn State by 13 percent in the upcoming budget year, a reduction the university says would be “catastrophic.”
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The cut in funding for Penn State and three other state-related institutions was among $500 million in cuts to his proposed 2009-10 budget that Rendell announced Friday as part of an effort to tackle a $3 billion budget shortfall.
Museums, libraries and mental health services also would take a hit, seeing funding eliminated or reduced. Rendell’s plan would continue to direct federal stimulus money to boost school district budgets — Senate Republicans had proposed using the money to plug the budget deficit. However, Rendell is proposing to eliminate money for Classrooms for the Future, intended to help districts improve their technology.
Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said the 13 percent cut would drop state support for the university to $278 million — close to what the university got from the state in 1996.
“A reduction of that proposed amount would be catastrophic for the university,” Powers said. “But we anticipate this will be resolved over the coming months. This is still a discussion, and a debate has to take place with the governor and the legislature before any final decision.”
Penn State trustees are slated to set tuition and approve a budget for 2009-10 on July 10. State funding
makes up about 20 percent of the university’s $1.5 billion budget this year.
President Graham Spanier and trustees have said they will try to keep the tuition increase as low as possible — possibly 4 to 5 percent — in light of the economic turmoil.
It was unclear Friday how Rendell’s proposal might affect those plans. An in-state freshman at University Park paid about $13,000 in tuition this year. Powers said that university administrators had just received the latest numbers and will have to study the information.
Even with the cuts, the total spending in Rendell’s budget is about $29 billion. Republicans expect revenue to add up to $24.5 billion, plus $2.7 billion in federal stimulus money for a total of $27.2 billion.
Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, said the budget is still in negotiations and everyone will have to figure out how to do more with less.
“I’m glad the governor is finally looking to trim his spending a little bit, but it’s still at $29 billion, which is where we started,” said Corman, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Corman said Rendell’s proposed cuts were consistent with the governor’s view on education — “lots of dollars toward basic education, lots of cuts toward higher education.”
“Ultimately, this comes down to how much money were going to spend, then you prioritize your spending after that,” he said.
Penn State had been slated to get $338 million this fiscal year. Rendell had cut that by about $20 million in the face of a state budget deficit, but was able to restore it with federal stimulus money.
While state lawmakers are supposed to pass a budget by the end of June, they haven’t met that deadline since Rendell took office.
“There’s not a thing in here that doesn’t hurt, there are virtually no good cuts,” Rendell said. “I could go on and on, but there’s nothing in here that I like in the slightest.”
Still, Rendell refused to budge on a proposed 7 percent state funding increase for instruction and operations in public schools, insisting that the recession not waylay his top priority of improving their quality.
To help support his proposal, Rendell is pushing for a 16.3 percent increase in the state’s personal income tax — a major sticking point with top Republican legislators. Instead, they are pressing for a bare-bones spending plan that would raise no taxes and would reduce spending by as much as 9 percent.
The cuts discussed by Rendell on Friday are slight compared to the ones being proposed by Republicans. The GOP also is refusing to discuss any tax increases, leaving the sides as much as $3 billion apart.
“There’s no pleasure or joy in reducing spending for programs that we have supported (for) many years,” Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said later.
But, he said, there is a limit to what government can do, and leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate show no interest in expanding those limits.
The House and Senate are home for the weekend and top legislators are expected to meet with Rendell on Monday.
Anne Danahy can be reached at 231-4648. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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