Schools May Stay Closed After Christmas Due To Budget Stalemate
HARRISBURG, Pa. (KDKA/AP) - In the partisan budget stalemate, legislators seem to have forgotten some victims -- school children.
"It's catastrophic," Burgettstown Area School District superintendent Dr. Jim Walsh told KDKA political editor Jon Delano on Wednesday.
Since July, school districts like Burgettstown have not received their monthly state subsidy to operate their public schools.
Delano: "Have you run out of money?"
Walsh: "Not quite. It's getting close. We estimate with our two upcoming payroll dates that we will be out of money by the 31st."
Delano: "31st of December?"
Walsh: "Right."
The hallways of the Burgettstown Area Middle High School were crowded with students on Wednesday, but they could be completely empty after the Christmas holiday.
On Monday, the school board debated whether to take out loans at a greater cost to taxpayers or close school doors in January until legislators reach a deal with the governor.
"I will tell you that it was an emotional discussion on Monday. and at that point most of the board members seemed to lean towards closing," says school board president Tom Repole.
Repole says legislators are putting school districts between a rock and a hard place.
"If we have to go and look at a couple million dollars in a loan to fund this only for a couple more months, then there'll be fees, there'll be losing costs, there'll be interest."
"And we'll have go back eventually and put it into the budget probably next year, and the only way we're going to get money to pay those fees back is to raise taxes," adds Repole.
Raising taxes or closing school doors -- not an easy choice but a necessary one for a number of school districts, says Walsh.
"Come January 4th, the kids would have extended break, and we would wait state funding."
The board will make a final decision on December 21st.
As for the legislators who refuse to compromise, says local Burgettstown resident Bill Robinson, "They're sure not acting in the best interest of the people who voted and put them in there."
Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday he remains committed to the outlines of a budget deal he had struck with top lawmakers to end a five-month budget stalemate, a day after the House Republican majority revolted and passed a significantly smaller spending plan.
The second collapse of a budget deal in the past month left lawmakers, lobbyists and people in the education and social services communities wondering if the stalemate would stretch into 2016.
Layoffs have mounted in recent weeks as social services agencies have stopped programs in the absence of state aid, while the Philadelphia School District alone has borrowed $525 million.
Wolf also said Wednesday that he wouldn't spend the weekend in New York at the annual Pennsylvania Society festivities, where thousands from the state's political and business establishments typically gather.
"If there's no budget, I'm not going to be up in New York," Wolf told reporters after he showed up for a celebration of the Holiday Wish Program, a volunteer gift drive. "This is where I need to be."
Asked if he would make more concessions to appease the House GOP, Wolf would only say he is committed to the deal's framework, declining to answer more questions.
After several districts briefly considered it in September or October, talk among school boards has begun to turn again to closing down, as they face the prospect of taking out new loans to stay open.
"Who knows where this is going to end up or how long that's going to take," said Jim Buckheit, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. "Given that this is the third go-around, I think people have really lost any faith that they'll come to a rational agreement or resolution in any short amount of time."
The tiny Greenville School District in western Pennsylvania plans to borrow $5 million by Dec. 20 if the stalemate stretches on. Without the loan, the 1,400-student district could keep its three schools closed after the holidays, officials said.
"We're up against the wall," said Greenville's superintendent, Mark Ferrara. "We absolutely don't want to shut down, but that's an option."
In Pittsburgh, the Easter Seals chapter for central and western Pennsylvania laid off 22 people this week, a measure to help it cope with the loss of state aid to care for the disabled that normally supplies about one-fourth of its budget.
The layoffs include therapists, program coordinators and people who work in accounting and fundraising. On Wednesday, the rest of the staff - about 270 to 300 people - will take salary reductions of up to 30 percent, said Karen Kavic, the agency's vice president of development.
The $30.8 billion spending package still supported by Wolf and the Senate calls for a 6 percent spending bump and a $1.2 billion tax increase. To meet Wolf's demands, it would deliver a record boost to public school aid - $350 million, or 6 percent - as well as meet county requests for more human services aid and narrow a long-term budget deficit.
As a trade-off, Wolf has agreed to sign legislation long-sought by Senate Republicans to scale back public pension benefits and by House Republicans to break state control over the sale of wine and liquor.
However, rank-and-file House Republicans backed out of a deal their leaders had helped negotiate, protesting it as being too expensive. The Senate has not assembled a plan for taxes that would increase as part of the deal.
Strengthening resolve against the deal were House Republicans wary about what they believed would be watered-down wine and liquor legislation.
To support its $30.3 billion spending plan, the House GOP was preparing a two-year, nearly $1 billion revenue package based primarily on an increase in cigarette taxes and an expansion of casino gambling to Internet sites and off-track betting parlors.
Dennis Webber, Greenville's school board president, said legislators should be forced to work without pay until a budget is approved.
"When nobody gets paid, they really find an end result much quicker," Webber said.
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