http://www.citypaper.net/...
The link is to an excellent investigative report in the Philadelphia City Paper newspaper that examines the real effects of Pennsylvania Governor Corbett's slashing of programs for the poor and the disabled and for public schools serving low income kids. Meanwhile, he continues to cut business taxes and refuses to close the huge "Delaware Loophole" that allows massive tax avoidance by corporations.
Our Governor is quiet and boring, so he doesn't say the inflamatory things that generate national news coverage. However, the results are worse than in Wisconsin, Ohio or New Jersey.
If you want to know more about what is really happening in Pennsylvania, please take a look at the following link:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/...
The City Paper article includes many stories of people falling through the newly ripped safety net. Here's some excerpts, but the entire article is worth reading:
"City Paper has learned that cuts implemented under Corbett have had a far deeper impact on almost every service the state provides to Philadelphians — including education; health care for the poor and disabled; welfare; food stamps; and support services for victims of domestic violence, the disabled and the homeless — than has previously been reported. It's all part of the ideologically driven agenda Corbett outlined in his campaign, and he has delivered: slashing expenditures with little apparent regard for the plight of the poor, or for Philadelphia's threadbare safety nets and crumbling school system.
More pain is on the way... Philadelphia will receive an estimated $42 million in cuts to public welfare programs, many of which are being consolidated into a new and perplexing block-grant program. "The cuts the governor has proposed for the Department of Public Welfare (DPW) are extreme, targeted and painful," says Donald Schwarz, Philadelphia's Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunity... The proposed new cuts come on top of last year's state budget, which cut $1 billion from education and trimmed $400 million from public welfare spending — and follow another $156 million across-the-board midyear cut implemented in January.
...The Philadelphia School District must cut $61 million by June, and there is an expected $269 million gap in next year's budget. Last summer's cuts led to the elimination of 3,800 teacher and staff positions, including 1,300 layoffs. ...the loss of nearly $300 million in state funding to the district, combined with the loss of stimulus dollars, has pushed Philadelphia schools into profound crisis... The commonwealth has been in charge of Philly schools since a 2001 takeover....Of course, not everyone uses Philly public schools or state universities, but the social costs of bad schools — crime rates, lost lives and sky-high spending on prisons and policing — are paid by all.
...Making matters worse, Corbett's proposed budget will raise Medicaid eligibility requirements and eliminate the General Assistance Program, which provides cash assistance to nearly 68,000 disabled adults, domestic violence survivors, children in the care of nonrelatives and others. ... And for those who lose their homes, funds to assist the homeless have also been cut, as has funding to shelter women who flee their homes because of domestic violence....Since August, DPW has quietly kicked 88,000 Pennsylvania children off Medicaid. Workers blame a directive from Harrisburg that required them to review a backlog of documents in a matter of weeks. Basic due diligence like checking to make sure that mail was going to a current address did not happen. The number of adults removed cannot be determined because the state recently changed its accounting method, a move that advocates call suspicious."
http://pennbpc.org/...
The link has great analysis of Corbett's proposed budget by the PA. Budget and Policy Center think-tank
Highlights:
The Dept. of Public Welfare is proposed to see a cut of "$629 million: $319 million in reductions to General Assistance, $168 million in cuts to Human Service Development Fund programs and $59 million in provider reimbursements."
The budget assumes continued cuts in the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax rate, which will drain close to $250 million in revenue.
The budget lets stand $840 million in cuts to school districts that were made last year, "which had a disproportionate impact on poorer school districts and have left at least a dozen in extreme financial distress."
The Accountability Block Grant Program would be eliminated, which is a $100 million reduction from last year. Those grants were mainly used to fund full-day kindergarten and reduce class sizes.
Public libraries would be cut by another 5%, on top of several years of previous severe cuts.
If the college cuts would be approved, the total 2 year funding cut would be 34% for state-owned universities, 51%for Penn State, 44% for Pitt and 43% for Temple.
The Dept. of Environmental Protection would have its funding cut by 43% from the 2007-8 budget.
The Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (which includes state parks) general fund would have its funding cut by 55% from the 2007-8 budget.