Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Funding to PHMC would be increased by 3.8%, going from $17,800,000 to $18,474,000.

Libraries

Library funding would be held level.  This means $53,507,000 for the public library subsidy, $2,567,000 for library services for the visually impaired and disabled, and $2,821,000 towards the library access line item.

PK-12 Public Education

The Governor has proposed a Basic Education Subsidy of $5.493 billion, an increase of $90 million or approximately 1.7%.  The increase, while a step forward, does not restore much of the nearly $900 million cut to school districts during the past two years.

Special education would be funded at the same level as each of the past five years - $1.026 billion.

The Accountability Block Grant would be funded at the same level as the current year - $100 million.

The Governor did discuss a new Passport for Learning Block Grant that would be funded by selling the state's liquor stores and potentially make available $1 billion over a four year period, beginning in 2014-2015.

The Governor's proposed appropriation for the state payment to the School Employees Retirement System is thought to be at least $100 million less than required under current law and is linked to proposals the Governor made concerning changes to the pension system for both future and current employees. 

Higher Education