Phyllis reacts to Gov. Cabot's budget

Corbett budget puts corporations before Pennsylvanians

HARRISBURG, Feb. 7 –State Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Luzerne, said Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed budget forces working families and vulnerable citizens to make more sacrifices and fails to require large corporations pay their fair share.

"How ironic that on the same day the governor wants to slash even more funding from critical health and safety programs for children, the elderly, individuals with disabilities and other vulnerable Pennsylvanians we are poised to vote on a ridiculously low Marcellus Shale impact fee?" Mundy asked.

Mundy said residents across the state are still reeling from local tax increases, tuition hikes, program cuts and layoffs caused by Republicans' 2011-12 state budget, and his proposal continues the commonwealth on that path.

Mundy said Corbett and the Republicans cut Medicaid and other critical health and safety programs by $1 billion in this year's budget, and they want to cut health and safety programs that help women, children, seniors, veterans and individuals with disabilities by at least another $700 million.

She added that Corbett is continuing his assault on public education by eliminating the $100 million Accountability Block Grant program less than a year after he and the Republicans cut $900 million from basic education funding. The Accountability Block Grant program helps schools provide pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten programs and reduce class size in early grades.

Corbett also proposed cutting funding for state-related universities, such as Bloomsburg and East Stroudsburg, by 20 percent, and state-related universities by 30 percent. That comes on the heels of budget cuts that that forced state owned universities to increase tuition by 7.5 percent for this school year.

"The governor himself said in the budget address that Pennsylvania needs a trained workforce, yet he continues to slash funding for basic and higher education," Mundy said. "His actions do not match his words."

Mundy said the governor is failing to lead by asking many Pennsylvanians to make sacrifices while refusing to require that natural gas drilling companies to pay a modest severance tax and closing the Delaware Loophole that allows big, multi-state companies to dodge paying the state's corporate net income tax.