Last year, the state had about $1 billion in federal stimulus money to help fund basic education at the state’s 500 school districts. While Corbett’s budget calls for increased spending from the general fund, the loss of federal money effectively means the state subsidy would be $550 million less than last year. That would mean school districts, used to seeing modest increases in the state subsidy, would see cuts of anywhere from five to 10.5 percent. In his budget address, Corbett suggested teachers take a pay freeze to help minimize property tax increases to cover the lost state money. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is maintaining a list of the districts that have agreed to a freeze. As of April 8, 15 districts have agreed to freeze teachers’ wages while more have frozen wages of administrators and staff.

Eulogy for Public Education

The situation is bad enough that retiring Lampeter-Strasburg Superintendent Robert Frick delivered the eulogy for public schools in Pennsylvania, post-dated to 2020. In his speech, Frick blamed a number of factors for the increasing costs of public education. No one escapes blame. He blamed a focus on non-educational roles such as health checks and extracurricular activities. These are not bad, but they detract from the central function of teaching. He also blamed an increased federal role in education, the collective bargaining rights of teachers, unfunded mandates under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the costs to school districts for charter schools – a thinly veiled voucher system, he called it.

While it may be too early to declare public education dead in Pennsylvania, the commonwealth has two main ways to pay for it. There are state taxes on income, sales and companies and there are local property taxes. As state subsidies fall, school boards across Pennsylvania will be forced to make deep cuts in already lean budgets – even with the stimulus money, Southern Tioga School District in Tioga County was looking at cutting popular programs and delaying the purchase of new text books – or raise property taxes. Raising property taxes may become more difficult as well under a bill that passed the Senate Education Committee earlier this month. That bill would require a two-thirds majority (typically six out of nine) to pass a property tax increase. Property taxes, of course, are based on the assessed value of a home or property. Typically, school property taxes in Pennsylvania are significantly higher than county and municipal property taxes.

Reserve Funds

The Pennsylvania Independent ran a story suggesting that some school districts may look into tapping reserve funds to fill budget gaps. Among all school districts, the reserve funds total $2.5 billion – more than enough to cover the proposed state-wide cuts. However, that would leave reserve funds depleted with no immediate plans to refill them. Additionally, there are wide disparities in the sizes of such funds. At the high end, Abington School District in Montgomery County has $38 million in reserve. Abington School Board, however, passed a preliminary budget before the governor’s budget address which proposes a property tax hike in addition to using more than $8 million in reserves. Additionally, many school districts used reserve funding last fiscal year to balance their budgets, despite the inherent risks of tapping emergency funds. The Pa. Independent story also notes that 13 school districts have no reserve funds and several have only a few thousand dollars in reserve. Under Act 1 of 2006, school districts may not increase property taxes beyond the rate of inflation without either an exemption from the state or a public referendum, which would make refilling depleted reserve accounts even more difficult.

Mandate Relief

One alternative for cutting spending at the district level is a cross-partisan package mandate relief bills, which includes the measure to force a two-thirds vote for any property tax increase. (Nomenclature note: most newspapers will get this incorrect. “Bipartisan” indicates broad support from both parties while “cross-partisan” indicates some support from the opposing party. All of the bills had at least two dissenting votes in the Senate Education Committee and one eked by on a 6-5 vote.)

These bills are generally supported by the Pennsylvania School Board Association, though PSBA Executive Director Thomas Gentzel called for additional reforms. The bills would, among other things, allow school boards to furlough (layoff) teachers for economic reasons, remove the requirement that school nurses hold specialized certification, allow districts to hire non-certified teachers as long as the district shows adequate yearly progress as defined by No Child Left Behind, suspend and possibly eliminate continuing professional development requirements, and raise to $25,000 the limit allowed before seeking formal bids. Gentzel also called for reforms to prevailing wage requirements for construction projects, pensions, and collective bargaining policies.

Committee member Sen. Dylan Leach (D-17) voted against the measures. In a press release, he called the proposals an assault on public education in Pennsylvania. “This pack of bills is an affront to the public education system in Pennsylvania, and I am in disbelief that so many of my colleagues voted to run them through the legislative process,” Leach said.

The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the union representing teachers, pushed back on the furlough proposal. While recognizing that schools sometimes do end up overstaffed occassionally, PSEA treasurer Jerry Oleksiak called for specific triggers in the furlough proposal. For one thing, school boards seek to minimize revenue by avoiding tax cuts rather than maximizing revenue like a private business. Oleksiak pointed out that this would tempt school boards to lower taxes while cutting teachers and thus increasing class size. He also noted that a furlough procedure without triggers creates a backdoor to eliminating underperforming teachers rather than the established protocol of helping teachers to improve before a formal termination.

Vouchers

Sen. Leach also noted the resurrection of school vouchers in Pennsylvania. On March 1, the Senate Education Committee also passed a bill to allow for education vouchers in the state. If passed in its current form, the bill would provide approximately $7,900 in state money to cover private school tuition. Initially, the program would provide vouchers to families at 130 percent or lower than the federal poverty level with children attending underperforming schools. By the third year, they would be available to all low-income families regardless of where they live.

While highly controversial, a voucher program might be a slight improvement over the funding mechanism of the current private school option. Under current law, parents may enroll students in charter schools or use cyber-charter schools to facilitate home-schooling. While charter schools are “free” to families, a student’s home district must pay the charter school the average cost of educating one student for every enrollee. This is higher if the student is considered “special needs” and the district gets special education funding for that student.

Unfortunately, economies of scale being what they are, this hurts districts all across the state. Eastern Lancaster County School District had 49 students go to charter schools, costing the district $656,000 for the 2009-2010 school year. This year, charter school enrollment more than doubled to 106 students, a major driver behind the district’s $1.1 million deficit. The district has about 3,200 students, down from 3,700 a decade ago. The declining enrollment coupled with the budget deficit led the district to announce a plan to lay off 15 teachers even though the district lost less than nine students per grade level to charter schools. The charter school funding law nearly led to Penn Hills School District paying $55,000 to send five children of former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum to charter schools despite residency questions. The State Department of Education agreed to reimburse that money at the height of Santorum’s failed 2006 reelection race in order to avoid costly legal proceedings.

On the other hand, the issue of charter schools and vouchers brings up the issue of whether education money derived from taxes “follows the student” as Corbett has also proposed for higher education spending. This philosophy is largely espoused by school choice advocates who want to take their students out of public schools for whatever reason. Since tax money is ultimately the people’s money, then the people should have a say in how it is spent according to this view. If the state and local governments spend X dollars to educate a student, it should not matter where that student attends school, but the money should go to the school of the parent’s choice. Moreover, since private schools are free to hire and fire teachers, only the best teachers would be employed. Finally, this free market approach would encourage all schools to improve as they face competition.

The libertarian Cato Institute published a piece arguing for such a measure to deal with the District of Columbia’s failing education system. In Connecticut, the governor is pushing back on an effort to establish such a scheme. This is not solely a Republican or Conservative plan as former Democratic New Jersey Governor John Corzine supported it as well.

Critics of such a plan argue that it would siphon away money from already struggling school districts. This creates a self-fulfilling prophesy as public school districts continue to underperform in the face of declining revenues. They also note that school choice would do little to improve education, arguing that student performance differences are generally tied to demographic differences between public and private students. Initially, some low-income students may benefit. However, in the long run critics say, vouchers lead down the road to school privatization with the same student body and many of the same teachers as public schools. This could lead to de facto segregation along class lines as the best private schools only take the best students while others languish in second-rate private schools. The average student still has to go to school somewhere and there are already questions about the quality of some cyber-charter schools.

Then there is also the philosophical question of whether citizens without children in school should have a say in how their tax money is spent. Every property owner pays property taxes and tenants pay indirectly through their rent. Should they also have a say in whether their share of the taxes may go toward private schools? If so, then parents would only be entitled to the school taxes they pay and one-third of all other taxes since 33.21 percent of the state budget is spent on public education. This would not be enough to cover private school tuition for every family.

This debate goes back to the days of Henry David Thoreau when he refused to pay a poll tax to a government that supported slavery in 1846. He spent a night in jail and was highly annoyed when an aunt paid the tax on his behalf. In a subsequent writing on the subject, On Civil Disobedience, he attempted to parse out this idea. He hated slavery and considered the war with Mexico to be illegal and immoral. He was arrested for not paying a poll tax, which supported the federal government and thus the war and slavery. However, Thoreau was more than happy to pay the highway tax as he supported road construction. Generations of political philosophers have struggled with this idea of individuals only paying taxes for the government programs they support. Eventually, it would mean the end of all government as people realize it is not in their financial interest to support any government program, even worthwhile ones, through essentially voluntary taxes.

Ultimately, voucher critics warn, they would eliminate public schools entirely and if such a policy were to continue, the state would essentially be subsidizing all private schools. One has to wonder how long spending like that can be sustained or justified. Furthermore, would the state eventually feel the need to set regulations and standards at these ostensibly private schools? How long would it be before private schools once again had all of the hallmarks of a public school system?

Philosophically, public school advocates argue that communities have a shared responsibility to educate the children of the community, even if individuals opt for private or home schooling. Americans United for Separation of Church and State points out that vouchers ultimately force taxpayers to support religious schools. Additionally, the Nebraska State Education Association notes that public schools do not turn any student away, ensuring that all students have access to education.

As an alternative to improving education, the liberal Center for American Progress suggests more investment, particularly at the federal level, in community schools which emphasize non-academic factors that shape a child’s grown, as well as targeted expansions of the school calendar. They found hundreds of schools using at least one of these strategies, but few using both.

Increasing Revenue

Finally, this entire discussion overlooks the other side of the budget debate. The Scranton Times-Tribune notes in this editorial that there are ways of raising revenue that touches neither the income tax rate (see how the 3.08 percent stacks up here) or the sales tax. They call for a severance tax on natural gas drilling since Pennsylvania is the only major producer that does not charge such a tax. They also call for closing the “Delaware loophole” that allows Pennsylvania companies to report income in low or no tax states like Delaware. The paper reports that 70 percent of state businesses dodge corporate taxes this way while small companies without a multi-state presence pay the full amount. This would allow the state to decrease the corporate net income tax rate of 9.9 percent and still increase revenue. Finally, they propose eliminating the vendor discount (allowing the vendor to retain one-sixth of the six percent sales tax) and expanding the sales tax to internet sales. The editorial also asserts that the $4 billion deficit will probably not be as large as that by the end of the year as the economic recovery generates more state revenue. In fact, the liberal leaning Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center found March revenue collection was better than expected.

Corbett also told the media not to confuse a “fee” with a “tax.” Presumably, shifting the responsibility for levying a financial burden on the industry from the state to the counties would fulfill the governor’s “no tax hike” pledge. However, just such a proposal was floated at a January hearing about the impact of the industry, particularly on rural, northern tier counties where much of the drilling is happening.

Severance Tax Proposals

While there is no proposal yet to allow local and county governments to assess such fees, six Democrats and a Republican introduced SB 352 in early February to actually levy a severance tax on natural gas extraction. It was referred to the Senate Finance Committee, which has not scheduled a hearing on the bill. Two of the bill’s Democratic co-sponsors sit on the finance committee.

SB 352 would impose a tax of five percent of gross profits plus 4.6 cents per thousand cubic feet of natural gas extracted. In contrast, a proposal that nearly passed in 2010 would have imposed a tax of 39 cents per thousand cubic feet.

Sen. Ted Erickson, the sole Republican co-sponsor of the senate bill and chair of the Senate Majority Policy Committee held a hearing on natural gas drilling in late January. He said:

Clearly, there is a need for some sort of consistent funding mechanism to help local governments address the issues that arise when wells are built in their area, as well as funding for the Commonwealth for its activities related to monitoring, inspecting and updating regulations. By working with all levels of government and the industry, we have the opportunity now to address many of these issues.

In the House, Rep. Greg Vitali is the lead sponsor of a companion bill, HB 33, which mirrors the language in SB 352. Vitali said:

Pennsylvania is the only major natural gas producing state in the nation that does not have a severance tax or fee in place. Out-of-state companies are profiting from the Commonwealth’s resources, and the Commonwealth should benefit too.

He also explained that the tax would raise an estimated $245 million for the upcoming fiscal year and $570 million by 2015. The revenues would be shared by the general fund, local governments and environmental projects, including the depleted Growing Greener fund.

The problem for severance tax advocates, of course, is Corbett’s vow not to raise taxes of any kind. Even if SB 352 or another natural gas tax would make it through the legislature, Corbett would likely veto it. That would mean both houses would need a two-thirds majority to override the veto. Even if the tax would appear as part of another bill, Pennsylvania governors have a line-item veto power.

Support and opposition

Despite Corbett’s pledge, Pennsylvanians seem supportive of a natural gas tax. A Franklin and Marshall College poll conducted this month found that 62 percent favor a tax on natural gas extraction. According to the crosstabs, 57 percent of Republicans favor such a tax. The only other tax proposal with more support was a tax on smokeless tobacco products. Apparently, the governor’s budget address did nothing to swing public sentiment as a January poll conducted by Susquehanna Polling and Research found 63 percent support for such a tax.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group representing the interests of the natural gas drillers, does not necessarily object to a severance tax. However, they disagreed with the 39 cent rate proposed last year as too high to be competitive. In that statement issued last year, the coalition said, “(O)ur industry maintains its support for a competitively structured severance tax that allows for capital recovery and reinvestment, comparable to other leading shale gas producing states, such as Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana.”

The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry also opposed last year’s tax proposal, but left the door open for a compromise at a lower rate, which the current proposals offer. Chamber Vice President Gene Barr of Government and Public Affairs said last year:

It is possible for the legislature to pass a responsible severance tax that addresses the various concerns that have been raised, environmental and otherwise, while not harming the economic promise of the Marcellus Shale industry.

The progressive Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center supports a severance tax and have created a graphic on their website showing how many millions of dollars the state has already lost from failing to levy a tax. They explain that most states tax either tax the gross profits on a wellhead or levy a flat fee per thousand cubic feet. While the HB 33/SB 352 proposals would tax both, PBPC notes most producers prefer the flat fee as it is easier to calculate and more predictable. Another progressive group, PennFuture, supports a “substantial” severance tax, a moratorium on drilling leases on public lands and additional environmental regulations. Renew Growing Greener, a group working to replenish the state’s environmental fund, supports putting a significant portion of any severance tax toward Growing Greener.

The conservative Commonwealth Foundation, on the other hand, argues that a significant severance tax would drive drillers away from the state. They also note that other states delay implementation of such taxes in order to allow drillers to recoup upfront costs.

The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania contends that a portion of any severance tax should be directed to local governments. However, CCAP is more interested in reversing the 2002 state Supreme Court decision Independent Oil and Gas Association vs. Fayette County that ruled oil and gas cannot be subject to property taxes. A reversal of that decision would be a revenue boon to Marcellus Shale counties. On the other hand, many companies lease land for drilling and the specifics of the lease would determine whether the landowner or the drilling company would shoulder the property tax burden.

Natural gas in Pennsylvania

The public and special interest opinion on a severance tax is only part of the story. On March 10, a public hearing in Pittsburgh illustrated both sides as some people talked about the new and badly-needed jobs as well as environmental impacts. Additionally, the industry creates economic ripples as state sales tax and local tax revenues increase in Marcellus Shale counties. The Marcellus Shale Coalition also notes that producers have invested $4 billion into the state. While the trucks needed for the work do cause damage to the local roads, the companies have been investing in repairs.

But there are significant drawbacks. Anecdotal evidence suggests that hotel rooms in the region are filled with employees of the drilling companies. In rural Wysox Township in eastern Bradford County, a hotel owner is constructing a new 40-unit building out of pre-fabricated units. The owner told the Towanda Daily Review that the demand for more rooms is driving demand for hotel space. However, the region also offers outdoor tourism destinations and there are fears that businesses catering primarily to tourists will suffer — even as restaurants and convenience stores thrive – as tourists compete with drillers for limited hotel rooms during peak tourist seasons during the summer and autumn. Hunters are also concerned that all of the drilling activity could affect harvests in addition to being squeezed out of hotels.

This situation also poses a problem for local governments that use the state and local hotel taxes for tourism promotion. Under state law, anyone who stays in a hotel room for 30 days is considered a “resident” and the tax does not apply. One Bradford County hotel has been completely rented by a drilling company and has paid no hotel tax for months.

Finally, there is the health risk. At issue is the process known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” The Halliburton, the company once headed by former Vice President Dick Cheney, developed the technology in 1949. New horizontal drilling technologies and marketing incentives helped dramatically increase the use of the technology since 2007. Source Watch, a publication of the liberal Center for Media and Democracy, details how Cheney urged the U.S. Congress to exempt fracking from regulation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This so-called “Halliburton Loophole” does not apply to state regulations, meaning the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has the responsibility to regulate and enforce those regulations until Congress restores EPA’s authority to regulate fracking. The liberal Center for American Progress in Washington DC called on Congress and the EPA Monday to strengthen water and air pollution measures in regards to fracking operations.

The problem is that the chemicals used in fracking are not particularly healthy to humans, animals and plants if they get into ground and surface water supplies. Halliburton recently began to disclose the chemicals used in this process and they include hydrochloric acid, methanol, acetic acid and formaldehyde. These chemicals are mixed with large amounts of water and sand and injected into the ground in order to get to the natural gas deposits. While there are plenty of reports of suspected contamination, it has been the iconic scene in the documentary Gasland of a man lighting his tap water on fire that sparked the public’s attention to the issue.

The Commonwealth Foundation, writing on their blog “Energy Facts Pa.,” claims that the Fracking process itself is not to blame for contamination. Rather, they claim, contamination is caused by the disposal of wastewater or resurfacing of wastewater caused by poor well design. Commonwealth foundation claims that drillers are constantly making improvements to well designs and adds that current laws fine violators and hold them responsible for remediation efforts.

There have also been scares of radioactive materials getting into rivers as the fracking process unlocks uranium in the rocks underground. DEP sampled seven of them and found no elevated traces of radioactivity. Additionally, there have been documented cases of gas wells blowing out, sending gas and polluted water into the air.

Since January DEP regulations have prohibited dumping wastewater with more than 500 milliliters per liter of dissolved solids into the watersheds, effectively preventing the dumping of frack water. Some industry professionals claim that the new regulations will be a challenge to the industry. In response, drilling companies claim they can recycle most of the water used in the fracking process, minimizing waste water, though critics remain skeptical as millions of gallons of frack water still ends up in municipal treatment plants, often ones not designed to treat that kind of capacity.

Natural gas is currently the country’s most efficient alternative to coal and oil. Washington DC, for example, runs their entire city bus fleet on natural gas. Unfortunately, extracting it from the ground has serious environmental and social impacts. Pennsylvania remains the sole major natural gas producer that does not charge a tax to help address these issues. A high tax might drive the drillers away, but a tax haven would likely attract even more drilling with no revenue benefit to the state or municipalities.

According to a summary in the proposed budget, Pennsylvania pays $30,248 per year to lock up an inmate. Health care costs account for $4,505 per inmate per year. In contrast, Pennsylvania spends $13,343 per child in school ($4,952 of that in state funds, the rest from federal sources and local property tax revenue).

And none of those numbers include a proposed new state prison in Fayette County, which was canceled last month. According to a Department of Corrections press release, that can be downloaded here, the state prison population stayed at around 51,000 through 2010. (There are also approximately 36,000 more inmates in county lock-ups in the state.) As a result, acting Secretary John Wetzel said there was no need to spend $200 million on the new facility. He also noted that the state under utilizes a boot camp facility in Clearfield County as well as other community corrections programs.

Still, the budget proposal notes that expansion projects will continue at four facilities at a cost of $68.5 million. Those projects would add another 1,260 beds to the prison system. Corbett’s proposed budget also calls for returning 2,140 inmates who are currently housed in Michigan and Virginia under contracts. Ending those contracts would save $29.5 million.

A major problem, though, is that those inmates from Michigan and Virginia would be rejoining an already overcrowded state prison system. According to the governor’s numbers, there will be an estimated 49,787 inmates in the state prison system at the end of 2011 but the estimated capacity for the end of 2011 will be 44,980. By June, 2012, when the expansions are complete, the state prison system will have a capacity of 45,734.

Assuming no spikes or declines in the prison population, the state prison system will be over capacity by 4,053 inmates in June, 2012. With 26 institutions in operation, that means each institution will be housing an average of 156 people more than capacity, approximately nine percent over capacity. That is the capacity of SCI Camp Hill and SCI Greensburg combined.

In his budget address, Corbett noted that the state prison population in 1993 stood at around 24,000 inmates, meaning the prison population has more than doubled. Between the 1990 and 2010 census, the state’s population grew by about 820,000 people or about 6.5 percent. That means more people are being locked up and for longer periods of time.

Just like with budgeting, the commonwealth will either have to increase the prison capacity or reduce the number of people in the system. Corbett’s budget office is working with a $4 billion deficit and he explicitly said in his address that the state, “can’t afford to ask counties in our state to subsist on a prison-based economy” in reference to ending the Fayette County prison. Therefore, embarking on an ambitious prison-building spree is probably off the table for the foreseeable future. While the state needs jobs, building prisons is probably not the ideal job to create.

Sentencing reform

Corbett alluded to the need for sentencing reform in his address as well as the need for more parole officers to help inmates return to the community and reduce recidivism rates. However, he did not offer many specifics. Other state officials, on the other hand, have some ideas that need to balance effective deterrence with a pragmatic approach to reducing the prison population.

In late January, Auditor General Jack Wagner offered a list of recommendations to reduce the state’s prison population. His recommendations build upon previous reforms passed in 2010. Wagner suggests expanding alternative punishment programs for non-violent offenders such as Community Correction Centers (half-way houses), home-based electronic monitoring and the Quehanna motivational boot camp as well as expanding the types of crimes that qualify for those programs. He also suggests ending the practice of allowing counties to send to the state inmates with less serious offenses and less than one year on their sentences.

The last point may be problematic as is would do little more than shift the financial burden from the state general fund to county budgets. According to the Department of Corrections’ 2009 report available here 2,615 inmates sent to state prisons in 2009, or 24.2 percent of total commitments, had minimum sentences of one year or less. That is the size of one of the state’s larger penitentiaries.

In total, Wagner noted that 19,000 inmates or about 39 percent of the prison population are serving time for non-violent offenses. If even some of those inmates could be transferred to alternative programs such as motivational boot camp, intensive home monitoring and half-way houses, Wagner said that the state could place a moratorium on building new prisons.

One other suggestion Wagner offered is passage of Senate Judiciary Chair Stewart Greenleaf’s (R-Bucks/Montgomery) Criminal Justice Reform Act. The bill is SB 100. In a letter discussing the bill, Greenleaf notes that Act 95, passed last year, included a number of his reform recommendations. Greenleaf’s current bill essentially mirrors Wagner’s recommendations and includes $50 million in appropriations to start and expand these alternative sentencing programs but he notes that they would save money in the long run.

One notable statistic from the 2009 Department of Corrections report is that Community Corrections Centers reported 97 walk-away escapes for the year. That was the lowest number since an increase in the population of Community Corrections Centers in 2006. Typically, escapees, once caught, are returned to prison and charged with escape, adding time to the sentence.

The same set of statistics shows that 3,378 of the 10,783 commitments in 2009 were for drug offenses and another 708 were for driving under the influence. In Pennsylvania, drunk drivers typically do not land in state prison until a third or subsequent conviction, while fatal crashes usually fall under other offenses such as homicide by motor vehicle.

The Philadelphia Experiment

In April, 2010 Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced a plan to essentially decriminalize possession of a small amount (less than 30 grams or about an ounce) of marijuana. At the time, Williams estimated that such a move could eliminate 3,000 cases from city courts or about five percent of the caseload. Meanwhile, city police said they would continue to make arrests for marijuana possession and leave punishment decisions to the courts.

Eleven months later, the Philadelphia Weekly magazine looked at the new reality for people charged with possession of a small about of marijuana. The city has set up a Small Amounts of Marijuana diversion program. Under the program, offenders are ordered to pay a $200 fine and attend a three-hour treatment class. The defendants do not get legal representation and their records will be expunged within six months. The city diverted about 80 percent of the 1636 arrests for possession of a small amount of pot to the program and was on track to save $3 million to $5 million for the year.

The story also paints a picture of a disproportionate number of African American youths getting caught up in the system even though whites and blacks report comparable rates of marijuana usage. (Incidentally, the state’s prison population was 49 percent African American, 39 percent white and 11 percent Latino in 2009.) The report also discusses people waiting for their turn in court complaining about the government’s war on pot. What is noticeably absent is a quote from any defendant saying that the experience would keep them from smoking marijuana again. Indeed, one young man featured in the article was going through the system for weed – not for the first time and probably not for the last time.

This brings up the question of whether state-wide reforms of marijuana laws would have a significant impact on the state prison system. Granted, most of the focus right now is on the medicinal use of marijuana, but the question of marijuana decriminalization remains on the table. A March, 2011 Pew survey found support for legalization or at least decriminalization nearly tripling from 16 percent to 45 percent since 1990. That’s still not a majority, but support has been steadily rising, primarily driven by younger voters and people who have attended college. Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department continues to hold that Congress has found it to be a dangerous drug and contends sales support criminal and terrorist organizations. Of course, DOJ cannot selectively stop enforcing laws passed by Congress, though Democrat Jared Polis of Colorado is pushing for federal decriminalization which would allow states to set their own policies.

However, most drug cases fall under state statute. In most possession cases in Pennsylvania, a defendant is not looking at state prison time unless he or she is in possession of a large amount of the drug and intends to sell it. In most possession cases, the defendant will go through a county court system and serve any prison time or probation there. It is only habitual offenders and repeat probation violators who even see the possibility of serving time in a state prison. Therefore, state-wide decriminalization would also have to give dealers a pass in order to have any appreciable impact on the state prison population. Furthermore, it would also have to offer retroactive immunity to have an immediate impact as those already sentenced would otherwise have to finish their sentences. On the other hand, Philadelphia’s experiment would likely pay the same dividends locally if implemented statewide.

All things considered, Corbett’s prison budget is a necessary expense. It would certainly not be prudent to simply cut the funding and turn those inmates loose. On the other hand, it is an opportunity to revisit the state’s sentencing guidelines and policies to ensure that violators receive appropriate punishment and treatment.

Gov. Tom Corbett delivered his first budget proposal Tuesday, calling for deep cuts in education spending, government spending and economic development programs. The budget also slashes business taxes and proposes a number of targeted tax credits to encourage growth.

Corbett also announced that his lieutenant governor will head up a task force to study the issue of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region.

Corbett told the joint session of the General Assembly that his budget address had two underlying messages.

“One: We have to spend less. Because we have less to spend,” Corbett said. “Two: We must tax no more. Because the people have no more to give.”

Public Education Spending

The $27.3 billion budget proposal seeks to close a projected $4 billion deficit, driven in part by the loss of $1 billion in federal stimulus spending that the state funneled to public education.

Corbett proposed spending a total of $5.23 billion on the state’s 500 school districts. This represents a decrease of $550 million from last year’s education spending. All of that decrease comes from the temporary federal funding, so Pennsylvania is actually spending more from the general fund on public education. This also means that school districts can expect to see their state subsidies shrink by at least five percent and as much as 10.5 percent. Special education funding remains level at $1.02 billion.

In an effort to minimize or avoid hikes in school property taxes to make up for the state budget cuts, Corbett called upon school employees to accept a pay freeze.

“I’m calling on the employees of our public schools – administrators, teachers, support workers, everyone – to hold the line,” Corbett said. “If it means a pay freeze, trust me, you’ll have plenty of company out there to keep you warm.”

Corbett also said that he believes district residents should be allowed to vote in a referendum on any property tax increase, though that would require a change in the state law as well.

The budget also eliminates funding for specific programs including accountability block grants, Science: It’s Elementary and Science in Motion. Pre-K Counts, Headstart and public libraries will also see funding cuts.

Higher Education Spending

Next on the chopping block was higher education funding. Under the budget proposal, the State System of Higher Education, representing the 14 state-owned universities, would see a 53 percent reduction in state funding and the four state-related schools (Penn State, Pittsburgh, Temple and Lincoln) would see similar reductions. Community Colleges face reductions totaling 10 percent or $212 million. The proposal also cuts off any funding to non-state universities. Additionally, the budget makes deep cuts to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, reducing money available for student grants and loans.

Corbett made general statements about “rethinking” state spending on higher education, but did not discuss specific reform proposals. He noted that tuitions have continued to rise in spite of state subsidies.

“When it comes to higher education we should do the same thing that we do in basic education: the dollars should follow the student,” Corbett said. “It’s their money.”

Public Welfare

The budget proposal does increase spending for the Department of Public Welfare by $607 million. The increase is supplemented by a transfer of $247 million from the Tobacco fund. Administrative line items at DPW would see an across-the-board five percent decrease. The budget proposal definitively cuts the adultBasic program, zeroing out the line item. The budget also proposes cuts in programs for child autism services, County Child Welfare services, and cash assistance to low income families.

Public Employee Wages

Corbett then moved on to state employee salaries. His budget calls for eliminating approximately 1,000 currently vacant positions and laying off another 500 employees. In his address he called for freezing the salaries of the remaining state employees and increasing employee contributions to health insurance benefits. He noted that private sector workers have seen their wages stagnate during the recession while state employees received raises.

The contracts for 17 of the state’s 19 unions expire this year. Corbett seemed eager to avoid a repeat of the chaos in Wisconsin over collective bargaining in Pennsylvania, but warned the unions that they must recognize economic realities.

“I want to be clear about this to our union leaders,” Corbett said. “Collective bargaining doesn’t mean some ill-defined middle ground. It means finding the spot where things work. In this case it is going to have to work to the good of the taxpayer or it’s not going to work at all. Let’s find that place and meet there. Let’s keep things working. Neither side need lose for the taxpayers to win. We need to act on our financial challenges now, before they act on us.”

Economic Development

Corbett then moved on to economic development programs. For one thing, the budget proposal does not include Walking Around Money that legislators use to directly fund projects in their districts.

“It’s not there, plain and simple,” Corbett said.

The budget proposal also calls for a 31 percent reduction in funding to the Department of Community and Economic Development. Under the proposal, DCED would receive $223 million to fund projects intended to create jobs.

Corbett called for significant changes within DCED by eliminating line items that have proven to be ineffective. He also called for a streamlined process for funding projects and forcing local economic development agencies to compete for funding in an effort to ensure the best projects get funded.

Marcellus Shale

Corbett announced that Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley will head up a Marcellus Shale Commission. The commission, Corbett said, will look at ways the state can build the natural gas drilling industry while protecting the environment. A report is due in 120 days.

Corbett did say, in no uncertain terms, that he does not support taxing the gas drilling industry, arguing that any tax would scare away more growth and thus jobs and economic activity.

“Let’s make Pennsylvania the Texas of the natural gas boom,” Corbett said. “I’m determined that Pennsylvania not lose this moment. We have the chance to get it right the first time, the chance to grow our way out of hard days.”

Tort Reform

Corbett called for reforming the state’s tort reform law. Under the current law, one party could be responsible for two percent of an injury and another for 98 percent of an injury. However, the former party could be stuck with the full liability if the latter party can evade payment.

“We need to change that aspect of tort law,” Corbett said. “The general assembly has passed this reform before. I’m asking you to pass it again. You now have a governor who will sign it.”

Corporate Tax Cuts

Corbett said that Pennsylvania currently ranks tenth worst in the nation in terms of state and local tax burdens. These burdens scare away business development, he noted. To that end, Corbett proposed eliminated the corporate stock and franchise tax. Phase out of these taxes started under Republican Govs. Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker, but halted under Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.

In addition, Corbett announced that his budget proposal continues the film tax credit and the increases the research and development tax credit.

“My budget retains an array of tax credits, not as a favor to businesses, but as a promise to their workers,” Corbett said.

Law Enforcement

Corbett’s budget proposal includes funding for two classes of state police cadets this year and another class next year. Additionally, he called for increased funding to allow counties to hire more parole officers to help released inmates transition back into society. He also called for reexamining sentencing guidelines to stay tough on crime while reducing the number of people in the prison system.

Liquor Store Privatization

Corbett reiterated his call to privatize the state liquor stores. He noted that his position is based solely on principal and not money.

“Government should no more run the liquor stores than it should run the pharmacies and gas stations,” Corbett said.

He went on to announce the formation of a new task force that will look at additional state functions that could be privatized.

Corbett wrapped up his budget address by noting the efforts and struggles of Pennsylvania’s founders. The state has an obligation to not only future generations, but also to the “sacred trust and the Holy Experiment these people passed on to us.”

“Let’s sit down and deal with the present so we can build the future in a way that respects our past,” Corbett said. “Let’s build a new Pennsylvania.”

The General Assembly will begin hearings on the budget proposal next week.

Participants at the rally shared their stories about living with the adultBasic benefit. The program cost the state $163 million and ended up on the budget chopping block as the state faces a $4 billion deficit. Gov. Tom Corbett said last month that he has no plans to seek alternative funding for the program.

Under adultBasic, low-income adults not eligible for other government health benefits could receive basic health coverage for $36 per month. This year the annual income limit was $21,660. Since 2005, Blue Cross and Blue Shield subsidized the program, but they ended those payments at the end of this year.

Athena Ford an organizer for Pa. Health Access Network, which organized the rally, said that the rally was about giving a voice to the 42,000 people who lost their coverage at midnight. That figure does not include nearly half a million people on waiting the waiting list to enroll.

“We need Gov. Corbett to hear us when we tell him that Special Care is not a solution,” Ford said.

Special Care is a Blue Cross/Blue Shield program offering limited coverage for hospitalization and surgery resulting from illness and accidents as well as annual mammograms and gynecological exams and pediatric exams and immunizations. Capital Blue Cross charges $192.44 a month for an individual and $516.77 a month for a family to enroll in Special Care.

Ford said that the non-profit, tax-exempt Blues could fully fund Adult Basic with three percent of their surpluses and called upon the administration to work with the insurers to save Adult Basic. A July, 2010 report from the left-leaning Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center found that the state’s four Blue Cross/Blue Shield affiliates grew their surpluses from $3.5 billion to $5.6 billion between 2002 and 2009. The Center also found that the organizations reported $821 million in profits after $500 million in contributions to Adult Basic since 2005.

The Delaware County Times noted that former Gov. Ed Rendell convinced the Blues to contribute to adultBasic. In the story, Rendell said that the Blues have statutory limits on their surpluses. Rep. Tom Killion (R-Middletown) said in the story that the deal was basically extortion as Rendell took the Blues’ money in exchange for not going after the surpluses.

In January Ross Schriftman, former legislative chairman of the Pennsylvania Association of Health Underwriters, noted that the organization had warned that adultBasic was an unsustainable model. He wrote that the options now include streamlining adultBasic subscribers into regular plans with the help of subsidies. He also wrote that those policies ought to include a HIPPA waiver for preexisting conditions for anyone who had been enrolled in adultBasic for 18 months or longer.

One person at the Harrisburg rally, J.C. Obendorfer of Coatesville shared his story. He is a contractor who relied on adultBasic for coverage. Prior to enrolling in the program, he went to the emergency room with what he thought was a heart attack. Since he had no insurance at the time, he ran up $5000 in medical bills for a two day hospital stay. He then enrolled in adultBasic and saw a doctor. The doctor diagnosed him with a minor chest muscle problem and prescribed a $30 medicine. With adultBasic, he was able to see a doctor several times a year.

“This is a great program and I think it can be sustained,” Obendorfer said.

Now Obendorfer and his wife are looking at health insurance rates of $1,300 a month, assuming no pre-existing conditions.

“I will have to raise my prices by $25 an hour just to cover the health insurance,” he said, adding that will obviously hurt his business as few people will want to pay so much more for his work.

Another person at the rally, of Swatara Township held a sign skewering the “free ride” for natural gas drillers while poor people lose their health insurance. While not a beneficiary herself, Dorg came out to support people losing adultBasic coverage.

“I have good health insurance. Tomorrow it could be me without health insurance. Or you.” She said. “If we sit in apathy about what happens to our fellow citizens, who will stand for us? Nobody is an island and selfishness is not a Christian value.”

In the legislature, at least three bills are being floated to temporarily fund adultBasic. One bill would redirect $192 million in surplus caucus funds, which pay for operating expenses in legislative offices. Another would borrow $56 million to fund the program through the end of the fiscal year (June 30) and repay the money using the insurance surcharge for the Mcare fund. A third would raise the tax on casino table games from 12 percent to 22 percent and direct some or all of the money to adultBasic.

Many of the proposed adultBasic fixes – assuming there is a fix – generally have an eye toward 2014 when the Health Insurance Exchanges mandated by the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act are scheduled to come online.

Monday’s Harrisburg rally was held in conjunction with a similar rally in Pittsburgh, also organized by Pa. Health Access Now.

We figured Halloween should bring out the best of the race for Governor.

Last night, Governor Rendell and Candidate Dan Onorato stopped at
Henry David’s Halloween Party. This party, which has been a
Philadelphia tradition since 1968, ends the night with a contest for
best transgendered male and female costume. Rendell and Onorato shook
hands and patiently posed for pictures with nearly all of the 2000
mostly gay attendees.

For the night at least, Rendell and Onorato got a free pass for
appearing with serial killers, pirates gangsters, hookers, and Playboy
bunnies. They had the pleasure of greeting a male Marie Antionette, a
new super hero Robocock, and the blue Navis from Avatar.
Onorato said, “I am crisscrossing the state for the last two days. It
all depends on turnout now.” When I asked Rendell what he does to
stimulate voter turnout, he answered, “We are here, aren’t we?”

Onorato had such a good time that he promised to come back next year.
Corbett, for sure, would never be caught dead at the party.

end

Virginia Cody says on her campaign Web site that she’s a registered Republicans, but identifies with Tea Party activists, Democrats, environmentalists and libertarians. She’ll have to attract all those constituencies to have any remote chance at a write-in campaign, typically a grueling endeavor even for the most well-known political figures.

“I have never run for a political office before,” Cody says on her Web site. “But, politics is inherent in virtually every business you are involved in. So, I feel quite safe in saying I understand how politics works; it’s a multi-layered mousetrap. I’m pretty smart, and I have a very steep learning curve. But, as far as I’m concerned, politics doesn’t have to be ‘business as usual.’ I intend to make sure it isn’t.

At least two larger write-in campaigns are already taking place in support of Republican Sam Rohrer, who lost the May primary to Tom Corbett. Rohrer has neither endorsed nor condemned those efforts, but he has also never endorsed Corbett’s candidacy.

Cody supports a moratorium on current Marcellus drilling and, later, a high drilling severance tax. The Patriot-News reports that Cody was among the anti-drilling activists who recently caught the attention of a state contractor that became embroiled in controversy for monitoring activists and circulating their activities to law enforcement agencies as possible security threats.

“No longer are we willing to accept the incestuous relationship the natural gas industry has with our legislators and government,” she says. “No longer are we willing to allow the natural gas industry to run roughshod over our citizenry with its deceptive leasing practices, its environmental carnage, and its arrogant refusal to pay its way while it does business in our state.”

Matthew Morrison, who stars on the Fox show “Glee,” will stump for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato Saturday.

An afternoon appearance at Carnegie Mellon University will be followed shortly after by an event at Point Park University.

The Inquirer reports that Corbett sent Perzel a fundraising letter in June. The letter came on campaign stationery, but was sent to Perzel’s government office.

“John,” the letter said, “will you accept my personal invitation to join the ‘Tom Corbett for Governor’ team, and make an investment in my campaign of $1,500, $1,750 or $2,000?”

Corbett campaign spokesman Kevin Harley said the letter shouldn’t have been sent to any government office, and that Corbett hasn’t been taking contributions from state lawmakers while the investigation is still active.

“In a campaign of this size,” Harley told the newspaper, “hundreds of thousands of appeals and letters are sent out, and our campaign does the best it can to ensure that only the appropriate people get them. If it happened, it shouldn’t have happened.”

Said Perzel: “I don’t think I will be contributing to Tom Corbett for governor at this time.”

The Muhlenberg College/Morning Call survey released Wednesday showed Republican Tom Corbett holding a 11-point lead over Democrat Dan Onorato in the race for governor, 47 percent to 36 percent. Twelve percent of likely voters are still undecided, and Corbett’s edge is one point smaller when those undecided voters are pressed to say which candidate they are leaning toward.

Republican Pat Toomey, meanwhile, holds a seven-point lead over Democrat Joe Sestak in the Senate race, 45 percent to 38 percent. Fifteen percent of likely voters are undecided, and Toomey’s edge stays at seven points when so-called “leaners” are included.

The results are largely unchanged from Muhlenberg’s poll last month. And while some surveys have showed the race tightening in recent weeks, the results are also consistent with what many public polls have found for months.

The survey of 577 likely voters, conducted Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, had a margin of error of four percent.

Click here to see the poll.