With less than fifteen minutes left in the sate fiscal year, Governor Corbett signed H.B. 1485, the spending plan for fiscal year 2011-12. Voting generally along party lines, the House and Senate had approve the spending plan. The bill was approved by a vote of 30-20 in the Senate and 109-92 in the House; Philadelphia Republican Representatives O'Brien and Taylor voted against the bill.  

Click here to watch video of Governor Corbett signing the budget.

The governor did not sign the bill until late Thursday because he was waiting for finalization of accompanying legislation, specifically legislation rescinding exceptions to requiring school districts to obtain voter approval for raising property tax above a state-set inflation rate.

In having the budget signed yesterday, the governor and Republican legislative leaders kept their commitment of meeting the June 30 budget deadline and approving the first on-time budget in 9 years, which was their priority.

The budget spends a total of $27.15B, a 3.4% decrease from the current fiscal year spending level. This is the first-time since 1970 that the spending level is lower than the previous fiscal year.

The result is deep cuts in education, health, and human services. In addition, cuts were made in environmental programs, tourism and other crucial state services.   

Key spending cuts include:

• Education by a total of $863M - basic education by slightly over 7% and higher education by 18%.
• Child care by 10%
• Child welfare by 4%.
• Behavioral health by 10%. 
• Housing Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP) by over 80%. Click here for additional analysis.

At the same time that severe cuts are being made, there is no tax increase to generate additional revenue and a majority of the state's $650M revenue surplus is left on the table.

During the debate, Republican legislators consistently argued that the bill was fiscally responsible and reigned in uncontrollable spending. The rationale for not spending the surplus was that the state still has a structural deficit that needs to be addressed.

On the other side, Democrat legislators argued that the cuts would hurt real people. Legislators focused on the cuts to: education; services to individuals with intellectual disabilities; HEMAP; tourism; and the environment. In addition, Democrats raised the issue that they were left-out of the budget negotiations.