7/31/2019 House Dems Corbett Myths List

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After 500 Days of Governor Corbett, its time for.

THE REAL TRUTH!

The Corbett Administration recently distributed a piece calledTop Five Proposed Budget Myths.

Heres the REAL TRUTH about those so-called myths that Corbett doesnt want you to know:

MYTH#1:Pennsylvania spends more money building prisons than building schools.

What Gov. Corbett Claims to be Fact:In the proposed budget, more than $10.7 billion is dedicated to education

in Pennsylvania. For the first time in ten years, the proposed budget contains no increases for the Department ofCorrections. The budget does include approximately $600 million in prison construction, $400 million of which wascommitted prior to Governor Corbett taking office. This overall amount is small in comparison to the more than$10 billion the Governor has committed to investing in education.

THE REAL TRUTH: In the current year, Gov. Corbett increased spending for the Department ofCorrections by $204 MILLION in state funds for prison operations (in addition to prison constructionfunding), while he cut classroom funding for K-12 public education by nearly $1 BILLION. His proposal for2012/13 provides level funding for Corrections, but cuts K-12 classroom funding by another $100 MILLIONby again eliminating Accountability Block Grant funding.

MYTH#2:The reductions in higher education funding will cause universities to raise tuition.

What Gov. Corbett Claims to be Fact:Schools themselves have shown this not to be true. From 1999 to 2011,Penn State, Temple, and the University of Pittsburgh received a combined $7.2 billion in state funding. During thatsame time period, tuition at these institutions rose an average of 130 percent. The funding reductions proposedfor the state-related and state-owned schools amount to an approximate 1.5 to 3.8 percent reduction in theiroverall operating budgets. These small percentages are something that should be overcome through costcontainment instead of reflexive tuition increases. The Governor is urging these institutions to examine how theyspend their money instead of balancing their budgets on the backs of students and families.

THE REAL TRUTH: From 2001 to the current year, Pennsylvanias annual higher education funding fell 9percent. The state has continued to slash funding for higher education at alarming levels. Since 2007,Pennsylvania has slashed higher education funding by 15 percent, four times the rate for all states in thenation. Gov. Corbett last year attempted to slash funding for public higher education by an historic andnation-leading 50 percent. The final Corbett budget included a 20-percent cut. But Corbett wont stop

his attack on public higher education. His proposed 30-percent cut would finish what he started andleave college students and their families with significantly higher tuition bills.

Gov. Corbett likes to say he is cutting university funding by just 1.5 to 3.8 percent of universities totalbudgets. But those numbers are misleading because they take into account the universities entireoperating budgets. He is comparing apples to oranges state funding levels to universities vs. overalluniversity budgets (of which state funding is a relatively small percentage) all to make his proposed 30-percent cut in state funding appear smaller. What he fails to acknowledge is that the universitiesoperating budgets include many restricted funding accounts that universities cannot use to offset thestate-funded classroom education cuts.

May 31 marksDay 500of PennsylvaniaGovernor Tom Corbetts term in

office. To commemorate this milestone, here are some truths to combat

Corbetts false claims about his proposed 2012-13 state budget.

7/31/2019 House Dems Corbett Myths List

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MYTH#3:The proposed budget reduces funding for K-12 education and will force school districts toraise property taxes.What Gov. Corbett Claims to be Fact:The more than $9.3 billion in state funding the Governor has proposedfor K-12 education is the highest in the history of Pennsylvania, with every school district in the commonwealthseeing an increase. Visit investinginpastudents.com to find out how much Governor Corbett is investing in yourkids and find out if your school district has money in its reserve fund it could use to offset its increasing costs.Additionally, Governor Corbett, just last year, took action to make sure you have more say in when, and if, yourproperty taxes are increased. He signed historic reform that requires proposed increases to be put on the ballot

for residents to decide.

THE REAL TRUTH: Gov. Corbett is intentionally trying to confuse the public with a website supposedlyshowing state funding for education. The plain truth is thatK-12 public school funding has been slashedby nearly $1 BILLION under Gov. Corbett. His misleading website includes funding that does NOT affectclassroom education. Gov. Corbett lumps in state-mandated funding for transportation and schoolemployee social security payments to make it appear that schools are getting more funding. In reality,Gov. Corbetts plan not only distorts the funding picture, it means schools will be on their own in thefuture to pay for increasing gas costs at the expense of classroom learning for students.

Gov. Corbetts education policies have decimated public schools with historic and devastating cutsresulting in more than 14,000 public school job losses, property tax increases in more than half of PAs500 school districts and unprecedented cuts to academic and extracurricular programs. Worse yet, Gov.Corbett isnt finished with his hatchet job on our kids public schools. He has proposed slashing fundingfor public education by another $100 MILLION which will likely result in the elimination of full-daykindergarten in many school districts, and possibly the elimination of kindergarten altogether in others.

MYTH#4:The elimination of cash assistance will mainly hurt children and victims of domestic abuse.

What Gov. Corbett Claims to be Fact:The primary recipients of cash assistance are single, childless adults andconstitute 1 percent of the overall public assistance population. The elimination of this program allows theadministration to save the state funded medical assistance program which provides medical services to the samepopulation. Currently, almost 39 cents of every state taxpayer dollar supports our public assistance programs, yetcosts of the system continue to escalate faster than our economy and the rate of poverty. We must take stepsnow to contain costs or these programs will be jeopardized in the future.

THE REAL TRUTH: Gov. Corbett is either intentionally distorting the facts or he simply does not

understand the connection between programs for which he is responsible. General Assistance CashGrants are often the only source of income for Pennsylvanias most vulnerable residents, includingchildren under the care of an unrelated adult, individuals with disabilities, victims of domestic violenceand individuals who are in drug and alcohol recovery programs. Gov. Corbett conveniently fails tomention that he also plans to cut Medical Assistance services for 35,000 people by cutting $170 MILLION.Eliminating these programs would result in tens of thousands of people seeking higher-cost services atthe local level.

MYTH #5:The proposed budget reduces funding for the arts.

What Gov. Corbett Claims to be Fact:Both last year and this year, Governor Corbett protected funding for thearts in Pennsylvania, investing more than $8 million in arts grants throughout the commonwealth.

THE REAL TRUTH: This statement shows that Gov. Corbett just doesnt understand the value of investingin education, or the significant impact of his callous and short-sighted cuts to our public schools. Gov.Corbetts nearly $1 BILLION in cuts to our public school system have resulted in large -scale cuts to artand music programs in our schools. With such a significant drop in state funding, schools have beenforced to raise taxes and in many cases cut or eliminate their arts programs. If Gov. Corbett trulycared about the arts, hed properly fund our public schools so that future generations can learn about,participate in, and enjoy the richness of the arts, music and cultural activities. His cuts are robbing ourchildren of the arts programs that Gov. Corbett professes to care about.