Harrisburg, June 30, 2013 – Sen. Judy Schwank (D-Berks) today voted “no” on Pennsylvania’s 2013-’14 budget.
“Instead of focusing on job creation, the past several weeks have been devoted to the expansion of alcohol sales and eliminating jobs, along with various other misguided priorities,” Schwank said. “They, and the lack of a transportation funding plan, proved to be strong reasons for me to not support this spending plan for the new fiscal year.”
Schwank said the $28.37 billion general fund budget misses the mark on issues that matter most to Pennsylvanians.
“Once again to my disappointment, this budget fails to seriously address the needs of job creation and economic development,” she said. “There is no real funding for significant job creation programs, including tax credits and economic development; even job training programs that have proven to be successful, such as Keystone Works, have been cut by over $1 million dollars.”
Schwank also said she was disappointed in the plans for education funding.
“The budget adds more than $120 million in education funding to be spread around the state,” she said, “but it fails economically hard-hit school districts that face deep cuts, local tax increases and more hardship.
“We have again failed to address the way we fund our cyber charter schools. The current funding formula is costing taxpayers millions of dollars and has created a budget crisis for many school districts within the commonwealth,” she said.
Schwank said community colleges are not supported by the budget, either.
“I have been a strong supporter of our community colleges, like Reading Area Community College. They are vital to our workforce education efforts in the commonwealth but once again we failed to address their funding needs”
###
More information on Sen. Schwank is available on her website, Facebook and Twitter.