Penn State President Barron laments fallout of budget impasse

Six months plus 30 days.

Still no state budget.

Penn State has reached the point where it is talking about next year’s budget, the place where it is entering into conversations about what the appropriation will be to take it through June 2017.

And the university is doing it without the money it should have had to start the school year in 2015.

The university has been fairly stiff-upper-lipped about the budget impasse that pits Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in his first term against the largely Republican legislature led by Centre County’s own state Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman.

But this week, Penn State President Eric Barron decided to take to the Internet for a little venting. He used his new blog to go into the issue.

“This is no small matter for Penn State,” he said.

According to Barron, there was a shot at receiving funding that missed when a compromise budget with chunks of money, incluing “approximately $225 million in general support, more than $19 million for Pennsylvania College of Technology, more than $11 million in Department of Human Services Medical Assistance funding for The Hershey Medical Center, and more than $50 million in support of the College of Agricultural Sciences’ service to the commonwealth” didn’t make it to Wolf.

For some, it might not seem like a big deal. Not everyone has a kid in college. Not everybody needs medical care in Hershey. How many farmers do we really have, right?

But Barron spoke to the larger impact of the university.

Aside from the impact on tuition and construction projects, there are bigger concerns, like Penn State’s role in helping address ag problems like the avian flu, which is rapidly becoming a national issue and could threaten Pennsylvania as it continues in other states.

Are there options? Sure. If a school district can get a bridge loan to cover things for a while, surely Penn State, with its endowment and assets, can get some cash floated. But is that the best option?

“It is a tragedy to use a tuition dollar to pay interest on borrowing that we shouldn’t have to pay or to sell off investments that earn dollars that support worthwhile programs, just to cover the lack of a state appropriation,” Barron wrote.

The governor has encouraged Penn State’s steps to freeze tuition, steps Barron wants to continue in the next school year.

But every freeze has to thaw when things warm up, and without help keeping a chill in the air, will Penn State be able to sustain what it started with the historic in-state tuition flatline in July?

“We will soon have no choice but to take explicit measures to reduce our risk rather than walk up to the brink of what should be unthinkable,” Barron wrote.

And Penn State isn’t alone. The school districts that will graduate students in just four months or so are also working on their budgets for the next fiscal year, as they are required to do by state law. For them, it is also “no small matter.”

But increasingly, the smallest matter is the approval ratings of the playmakers. A new Franklin and Marshall College poll put Wolf’s favorables at just 33 percent, but that was a staggering success compared to the General Assembly’s 14 percent.

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Penn State President Barron laments fallout of budget impasse."