Republicans, in a brief floor debate, called the stopgap the best way to help Pennsylvanians while they continue to hammer out a permanent budget.
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“It’s bad now, but we go from bad to borderline disastrous if something isn’t done by Thanksgiving”, DePasquale said at a news conference following the Senate hearing.
Twenty-nine school districts and intermediate units have reported taking out loans to the state’s auditors.
Drafters are still grappling, sources said, over what formula to use to drive the dollars gathered in Harrisburg back to the 500 public school districts; and whether to tighten current limits on future school tax hikes at the local level. While all 30 Republican Senators voted for the measure, the emergency funding veto override vote received no Democrat support.
The gridlock has left a $2 billion state budget deficit unresolved and prompted Moody’s to revise its outlook on Pennsylvania’s Aa3 credit rating to negative on October 16. Even that would keep the system running only through December, Burns said.
“The point is we have a problem and we in Pennsylvania are trying to do something about it”, says Wolf. Schools say they’re hurting and it will only get worse if a deal isn’t finalized soon.
An additional 10 districts have borrowed another $85 million since DePasquale’s first report on the impact of the stalemate last month. But the Republican-led legislature has rejected Wolf’s plan, saying that taxpayers don’t have the appetite for increased or new taxes.
Teachers have been photocopying pages out of books, said Sandy Matos, 40, mother of the two girls.
“Whatever way you want to patch it, it’s still hurting their learning”, Matos said. He said they’ve all failed and are about to seriously harm children.
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“When does this game of politics stop?” she asked.
