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After an eight-month stalemate, Pennsylvania has a budget -- which includes $20.6 million for the state’s colleges.
Along with the $412.7 million Pennsylvania colleges received in December, the new funding brings total appropriations to $433.3 million -- a 5 percent increase over last year. It’s the first increase the state colleges have seen since 2009.
"We are grateful for the new investment in our students and universities, which will help us to reduce our mounting budget deficit,” Guido M. Pichini, chairman of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors, said in a statement. “We hope that this increase -- the first in seven years -- represents the beginning of a renewed investment in higher education in Pennsylvania.”
The stalemate between the Democratic governor and Republican Legislature was the longest in state history. Some Pennsylvania colleges had threatened mass layoffs.
Soon, Pennsylvania will start working on its budget for the next fiscal year, which starts on July 1. Meanwhile, Illinois in now the only state without a budget this year.
CONGRATS to everyone who took #Pennsylvania over #Illinois in their State Budget Impasse pools #PABudget #oneshiningmoment
-- Dawn Maglicco Deitch (@maglicco) March 23, 2016
