State House Approves $27 Billion Budget

Wednesday night the state House accepted a $27 billion budget. According to press releases, both Democratic representatives who serve the Chartiers Valley area, Nick Kotik and Matthew H. Smith, are against the approved budget.

Though local representatives voted no, the budget was passed with a vote of 109-92 and Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to sign it today.

Kotik and Smith are not in favor of the budget primarily because education funds are to be cut by $1 billion.

"I rejected this budget because education investment is necessary to provide children and young adults with the tools necessary to compete in an ever-changing global economy,” said Smith, a legislator for portions of Scott Township.

He also said he believed that the budget would be “pushing the burden to local school districts, municipalities and hard working families.”

Kotik agrees with Smith and said he is an advocate for controlled spending, especially in a time of economic recovery. However, he thinks the budget cuts are extreme and not necessary.

“The fallout from $1 billion in education cuts stands to be catastrophic. What happens to the schools that have already been on the funding bubble for years? The poor are about to get poorer and no one wants to see another school go into distressed status,” he said.

According to Kotik, Chartiers Valley and South Fayette, amongst other local school districts, are losing up to 10 percent of state funding this year.

“It's the classic case of taking two steps forward, one step back. This is not the time to take away pre-K programs, force class sizes to grow or to raise the cost of college tuition.”

Kotik feels as if it is tax payer dollars being cut and it is not fair.  

“There is a $700 million surplus Governor Corbett and those under his Republican ideology are refusing to use. It's not their money to decide. It's not their money to keep. It belongs to you, the people who pay your fair share, who pay your taxes. And what does this budget do? It punishes you, the very people that money belongs to,” said the representative of Collier, Kennedy, Robinson, Scott, South Fayette and Stowe townships. Kotik also represents the boroughs of Bridgeville, Carnegie, Coraopolis, Heidelberg, McKees Rocks and Pennsbury Village.  

Even though the budget was approved Smith still is going to fight for proper education in Pennsylvania.

"I will continue to fight to fully invest in pre-K, full day kindergarten, basic education and higher education. Research consistently demonstrates that investments in education represent one of the best returns on that investment for taxpayers. Passage of this budget will not be the end of the fight for education, only the beginning of the next battle to properly educate and prepare the children of this Commonwealth," said Smith.