Despite claim - there's no budget agreement

Schools threatened this year and next by Harrisburg’s ongoing failure to agree on budget MILFORD — The state’s continuing budget mess may come home to roost at the Delaware Valley School District in the 2010-11 school year. With weekly web conferences and other institutional contacts statewide, District Superintendent Dr. Candis Finan keeps a close eye on Harrisburg’s budget issues. However, on Wednesday she admitted that most of the new information she’s getting about the state budget is coming from the newspapers. On Friday, state legislators announced a resolution to the nine-week standoff. “Leaders from the Senate Republican, House Democratic, and Senate Democratic caucuses said that the agreement calls for the adoption of a $27.945 billion spending plan with no broad-based tax increases,” a statement declared. They predicted legislative passage as early as this week. But on Tuesday, Lehigh County human services workers in Allentown demonstrated against the new budget. Their union statement claimed the budget impasse is far from over. “... the Governor is threatening to veto the (compromise) budget since he believes it overestimates revenue and wants $71 million more in spending for education and economic development priorities.” Pike’s House Democrat State Rep. John Siptroth endorsed the Friday agreement. “The plan isn’t perfect, but it is a compromise where both sides had to give a little.” The House Republican caucus did not join in the Friday agreement, Pike’s Republican State Rep. Mike Peifer commented through an aide. “For now, Rep. Peifer wants to defer comment on the budget deal that is being negotiated until he has more information on which to base his comments.” Finan confirmed hearing much the same details that the union provided earlier this week. She said the impasse has brought outgoing information to a complete halt. “Normally, (education) lobbying organizations can provide numbers on what’s being considered, but no one was talking Tuesday. We were told even the legislative aides had locked their doors,” she said. Delaware Valley Business Manager Bill Hessling said the district gets 30 to 35 percent of its operating funding from the state annually. Commenting on the impasse, he said, “At some point in time (the state budget) is going to be a major issue. In planning future programs, that time is going to be sooner, rather than later.” “If the budget were settled today,” Finan stated, “it would still take four to six weeks for money to begin to move out to recipients.” Delaware Valley had anticipated state budget problems this year and had made cuts, consolidated programs, and moved people around. “It didn’t solve the problem, but it solved enough to start the school year,” Finan said. The larger problem will come later in the fall, when planning for the next year’s budget must begin. Finan said projections are made from the existing budget to plan any tax increase, new program or initiative. Administrators need to have these by December. “As of now, we don’t even know what this year’s revenues will be. Without them, it’s impossible to go about planning for next year’s numbers,” she said.