Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Budget update

Capitolwire: Framework collapse avoided; broad-based tax hikes, property tax relief no longer included.

By Chris Comisac and Kevin Zwick
Capitolwire

HARRISBURG (Nov. 24) - Remember two weeks ago when the budget framework collapsed until it didn't?

Well, it happened again.

Late Tuesday afternoon, building off of Gov. Tom Wolf's comments a day earlier that the framework was “in deep peril,” the rumblings coming out of the Republican House and Senate leadership seemed to indicate the two-week-old budget framework was about to implode.

Then, in less than an hour, between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., catastrophe was avoided, yet again.

"We're very comfortable and optimistic that we can have this done in short order next week," Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, said after exiting a meeting with Wolf Tuesday evening. "Right now, we're on track with the framework we agreed to."

"These things go back and forth all the time,” he said. “Things go up and down, people get excited."

The Wolf administration cast the situation in a more negative tone.

“As we have said, Republican leaders communicated directly to Gov. Wolf late last week that they do not have the votes for the framework they agreed to with the governor and stood with him to announce,” wrote Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan in an email. “Tonight’s latest theatrics are just an outgrowth of that. 

“Talks continued with Republican leaders tonight and will take place in the coming days. As the governor said yesterday, he wants a budget by next Friday.”

No framework details were offered by leaders outside the governor’s office following their meeting with Wolf. Leaders said they still have to brief their caucuses. The plan, say GOP leaders, is to come back to the state Capitol next week and begin moving budget bills reflecting the framework.

House Republican aides told Capitolwire the framework no longer contains a property tax relief component, nor does it include a broad-based tax increase.

During the last two weeks, both components have been the source of significant pushback by rank-and-file members of both political parties.

On Monday, Wolf, remarks at the Pennsylvania Press Club, said the plan is to “keep overall spending to $30.745 billion and reduce one-time fixes from $2 billion in the 2014-15 budget to $700 million with the goal of eliminating the one-time fixes in the 2016-17 budget.”

The House Republican aides said the overall budget spend number of the still in-play framework remains roughly in the area identified by Wolf on Monday. To get there, the House and Senate GOP caucuses have been reviewing other recurring revenue sources to produce the revenue needed to balance the budget.

However, and as noted by Wolf on Monday, there will be some one-time funding used to balance out the plan, House Republican aides confirmed.

The hiked education funding for the current fiscal year appears to have remain unchanged: an additional $350 million for basic education, $50 million more for special education, an additional $60 million for pre-K programs, and a $75 million increase for higher education. 

On Monday, Wolf was light on the details about the framework’s plans for liquor and pensions.

From the information supplied by House Republicans, it appears there’s an effort to do the following for liquor: wine at grocery stores; beer, wine and liquor at beer distributors; legalized direct shipment of wine; a full lease of the wholesale liquor system (which Wolf discussed briefly on Monday); and an expectation of as much as $300 million in additional recurring revenue from the changes. 

The union representing the few thousand workers isn't thrilled with Wolf's plan to privatize management of the state store system, but isn't putting up opposition because Wolf's management outsourcing plan guarantees the unionized workforce keeps their jobs. 

On pensions, the details are still a bit elusive.

However, most of the components affecting current employees that had been agreed to in prior pension proposals offered by both the GOP and Wolf appear as though they’ll be included in the pension proposal: risk sharing, the revenue neutral lump sum payment option, and the anti-spiking provisions.

In addition, a hybrid pension plan is being developed, or as Wolf described it on Monday, “a side-by-side plan, defined benefit, defined contribution, 401-K.” 

The proposal looks like it could include a 50/50 split of the employee pension contribution between the defined benefit portion (which would offer a reduced benefit compared to the current pension plan) and the 401(k)-style portion. No other details were available Tuesday night.

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Thursday, November 12, 2015

News fro Noelle

Hello, advocacy network!

 

ESEA Letter: AASA joined four other national organizations (Association of Educational Service Agencies, Association of School Business Officials, National Rural Education Association and National Rural Education Advocacy Coalition) in a joint statement, signed by all 5 executive directors, urging House Republicans to support the Dear Colleague letter. Please see the bottom of this message for that email.

 

Big news re ESEA: Senate HELP and House Education and the Workforce leadership have reached a deal on ESEA and are now drafting it into legislative language. The House next week on Tuesday or Wednesday is expected to appoint conferees. There is likely to be an official conference meeting after that next week to ratify the deal. The timeline calls for the conference report to be filed on Monday, 11/30 and voted on the House floor on 12/2. Then the Senate floor.

 

Read related storyhttps://t.co/LuVtzfDkBx

 

Call to Action: In follow up to an earlier email, I am reissuing the call to action re: the House Republican Dear Colleague letter. AASA and NEA are the organizations working with the sponsoring offices, and today’s ESEA news makes this letter all the more critical. I would greatly appreciate anything you can do (such as sending a quick note to the Republican offices in your state!) to get the message to the hill by COB tomorrow.

 

I have run a complete export of education staffers and legislative directors (with email addresses), to make your work easier. It is attached, and sorted by state. Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Thank you.

 

Noelle

 

Noelle M. Ellerson

Associate Executive Director, Policy & Advocacy

AASA: The School Superintendents Association

1615 Duke Street

Alexandria, VA 22314

(c) 703-774-6935

nellerson@aasa.org

Twitter: @Noellerson

Monday, November 9, 2015

Are we there yet?

HARRISBURG (Nov. 9) - Things are still very tentative – and very fragile at the moment – with a lot of details yet to be worked out, but the first signs of what all involved are calling “a broad framework” for a potential 2015-16 state budget has begun to emerge in the state Capitol.

Late Monday, the various players in the ongoing budget drama confirmed reports there’s been some amount of agreement on additional education spending for 2015-16, as well as some revenue to help pay for it.

It appears as though all parties have “generally” agreed to an additional $350 million for basic education, an additional $50 million for special education and a 5-percent increase in funding for higher education. 

In a late Monday evening conversation with Capitolwire, House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin was hesitant to acknowledge agreement on any numbers, but indicated those numbers were “generally correct,” while heavily stressing, “This is all just a framework.” 

There had also been some talk from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration about an additional $50 million for pre-K funding, but Senate Republican spokeswoman Jenn Kocher told Capitolwire the Senate GOP has “not come to any agreement on pre-K.”

Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan sent out an email, and later told Capitol reporters, the framework also included additional education funding for Fiscal Year 2016-17, including $200 million more for basic education, $50 million for special education and $50 million for pre-K.

Kocher said no such agreement has been reached for anything beyond the 2015-16 framework’s funding levels. She added Senate GOP leadership late Monday afternoon warned the Wolf administration of any claims to the contrary, suggesting that could scuttle the entire fledgling framework. 

About FY2016-17 education funding, Miskin said: “Right now we just want to get his part [FY2015-16] done, and then we’ll look at what else we have to do ... but we’re not there yet.”

House GOP Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, and House Appropriations Committee Majority Chairman Bill Adolph, R-Delaware, told state Capitol reporters late Monday afternoon there’s a lot of work to do before this is a budget deal.

“There's a lot of details to be worked out," said Reed.

But when it’s all said and done, there will have to be agreement on everything included in the framework, or there won’t be any deal, said Miskin and Kocher.

“If one thing breaks apart, the whole deal could fall apart,” said Miskin.

“It’s something where we need everything to be agreed to or there’s nothing,” Kocher said.

Included in those details, Reed said there will be additional property tax relief, although how that, as well as the additional education funding, is distributed has yet to be determined. And, with regard to property tax relief, Reed suggested there might be caps placed on how much school districts can raise property taxes in the future.

Also to be worked out is how to pay for the additional education spending and property tax relief, as well as close the current $1.3 billion structural deficit and address future cost-to-carry issues, such as state pension contributions.

When asked about funding, Sheridan would only say, “How this is all paid for, the details are being worked out.” 

But Reed and others with knowledge of the continuing budget conversations said plenty of potential revenue sources remain on the table and under discussion, including an expansion of gambling (such as internet gaming, slots at off-track betting locations and limited slots licenses for airports), a cigarette tax hike, a new tax on e-cigarettes and the privatization of the state's wine and liquor system. However, a hike in the current tax on natural gas is not part of the discussion “at this time,” said Reed.

And with regard to liquor privatization, Reed said it will have to be the first $250 million in recurring revenues to help pay for the additional education funding.

However, other revenues will be needed to make the plan work, and it appears, as reported previously by the Associated Press, the roughly $600 million in tax revenue generated annually by the state’s slot machines for property tax relief will be a part of that, as well as a hike and expansion of the state’s sales tax.

When asked about the sales tax, Reed did not commit to anything, other than to say it “certainly has been part of the discussion and is certainly a path that folks have looked at." 

Kocher said the sales tax discussion is focused on she characterized as “dollar for dollar” property tax relief.

According to Kocher, currently under consideration in this tentative framework is a total of $2 billion in new revenue that would be generated by a sales tax hike and expansion – on two currently exempt transactions, digital downloads and online hotel reservations. Reed had mentioned the potential to raise the tax by 1.25 percent from its current level (throughout most of the state) of 6 percent, which Miskin said was one option but agreed the ultimate goal is to generate $2 billion in new revenue.

But here’s where the framework gets more interesting.

Of that $2 billion, which would all be devoted to “dollar for dollar” property tax relief, $600 million would be used to provide the property tax relief currently funded by slots-generated tax revenue. That’s because the $600 million in slots tax revenue would be moved into a restricted account earmarked to pay for the state’s public pension contributions. That diversion of slot funding would then free up $600 million in General Fund revenue (that would have otherwise been necessary to pay for pensions) to be used to help pay for the additional education funding as well as budget needs, including closing the structural deficit.

The Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative-leaning Harrisburg-based think tank, on Monday afternoon criticized the proposal as a “backdoor $600 million tax increase,” as it would raise taxes by $2 billion, but only deliver an additional $1.4 billion in property tax relief – something of which legislative Republicans were repeatedly critical when proposed by Wolf in his state budget.

“Pennsylvanians have had their fill of shell-game gimmickry during the last four months of budget negotiations,” said Matthew Brouillette, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, in a press release. “Rather than concoct creative ways to disguise tax-increasing deals, lawmakers and the governor should seek common ground that spares taxpayers—who already pay the 10th-highest state and local taxes in the nation—from an even larger burden.”

But according to sources within at least the state House of Representatives’ two legislative caucuses, the framework – such as it is currently – was met with optimism, though they admitted there are still many lingering questions about which revenue generators will be part of the final product, if there is one.

“I think if the current spirit continues, where all four caucuses and the governor are working hard to get this to a conclusion, Thanksgiving is possible,” said Bill Patton, House Democratic Caucus spokesman. “It's certainly not a sure thing. Democrats still have a lot of questions and our votes are not guaranteed yet.”

Patton said how school funding and property tax relief is distributed is critical toward getting support from the caucus.

“We're not closing any doors,” he said. “We're encouraged by what's happened in the last week and a half, and hope that progress will continue.”

Miskin and other House GOP sources said if all goes well with the continued development of the framework – which remains a fairly big “if” – the plan is to begin considering a General Appropriations bill next Tuesday, with the goal of getting all budget-related bills – and sources said a final budget package could include 30 or 40 bills – to Wolf’s desk by Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Truest from Noelle

Good evening advocacy network,

 

I hope this note finds you well. Republican Representatives Dave Reichert (Washington) and Greg Walden (Oregon) are moving a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter. This letter is focused on House Republicans only, and will be sent to the ‘Big Four’ (House and Senate Education Committee leaders), the ones currently engaged in the ESEA conference negotiations.

 

The goal is to collect the signatures of as many Republican Representatives as possible, as a way of demonstrating an appetite for getting ESEA done, both to the House in general and the Republican caucus.

 

The Dear Colleague letter is included below. We ask that you reach out to any Republican Representative in your state and urge them to sign the letter. House Committee staff have seen and approved this letter.

 

The letter is going to be sent on Monday November 16, meaning we have until 12 noon on Friday November 13 to collect signatures.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Noelle

 

Noelle M. Ellerson

Associate Executive Director, Policy & Advocacy

AASA: The School Superintendents Association

1615 Duke Street

Alexandria, VA 22314

(c) 703-774-6935

nellerson@aasa.org

Twitter: @Noellerson

 

 

Dear Colleague:

 

Please join us in sending the letter below to leaders of the House and Senate education committees urging them to conclude conference negotiations on legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as soon as possible.  Across the nation school districts, students, parents, educators, and community leaders are eager for a new law that supports common sense changes that strengthen our education system.  It has been nearly 13 years since the last ESEA reauthorization; we cannot miss this opportunity to reconcile differences and enact legislation that puts students and families first. 

 

If you have any questions or would like to sign onto the letter, please contact Lindsay Manson in Rep. Reichert’s office (lindsay.manson@mail.house.gov or 5-7761).

 

Sincerely,

 

DAVE REICHERT                                        GREG WALDEN

Member of Congress                                       Member of Congress

 

 

November XX, 2015

 

Chairman John Kline                                                                          Chairman Lamar Alexander

U.S. House Education and the                                                           U.S. Senate Committee on Health,

Workforce Committee                                                                        Education, Labor and Pensions

2181 Rayburn House Office Building                                                428 Senate Dirksen Office Building

Washington, DC 20515                                                                      Washington, DC 20510

 

Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott                                       Ranking Member Patty Murray

U.S. House Education and the                                                           U.S. Senate Committee on Health,

Workforce Committee                                                                        Education, Labor and Pensions

2101 Rayburn House Office Building                                                428 Senate Dirksen Office Building

Washington, DC 20515                                                                      Washington, DC 20510

 

Dear Chairman Kline, Ranking Member Scott, Chairman Alexander, and Ranking Member Murray:

 

Earlier this year, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate made significant strides towards updating our nation’s education laws by passing bills to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA); the Student Success Act (H.R. 5) and the Every Child Achieves Act (S. 1177). For far too long our nation’s schools have struggled under the now outdated No Child Left Behind law to provide the world-class education that our children deserve and require to be competitive in a global economy.  It has been nearly 13 years since the last ESEA reauthorization; we cannot miss this opportunity to reconcile differences and enact legislation that puts students and families first.  We urge you to complete conference negotiations to reauthorize ESEA as soon as possible.

 

Missing this opportunity to reauthorize ESEA would be devastating to America’s students whose education is deeply impacted – these students deserve to be made a priority. Successful passage of legislation to update our laws is critical to every community in each of our congressional districts. Across the nation school districts, students, parents, educators, and community leaders are eager for a new law that supports common sense changes that strengthen our education system.  

 

Enacting authorizing legislation is the duty of the legislative branch. The time is long-past for Congress to exercise this authority. We were pleased that both the House and Senate completed their individual bills this summer. We urge you to finish the work and present a final ESEA reauthorization bill as soon as possible. We stand ready to support you in this effort.

 

Sincerely,

 

DAVE REICHERT                                        GREG WALDEN

Member of Congress                                       Member of Congress

 

Thought

We all focus on the problems in education. Perhaps we should focus on the purpose of education.