Corbett defends his proposed $27 billion budget
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Raheem Crawford, right, 28, of the North Side and other members of One Pittsburgh lie under a red carpet urging patrons to step on them at the Duquesne Club, Downtown, on Friday. Gov. Tom Corbett attended a luncheon with his supporters at the club. The group chanted that Mr. Corbett's budget steps on "the 99 percent." -
Gov. Tom Corbett, left, and John Stanik, CEO of Calgon Carbon, look at the ultraviolet lamps inside of a UV reactor at the Calgon Carbon UV Technologies plant in Findlay on Friday. The reactor is used to clean water with ultraviolet light.
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Gov. Tom Corbett stood by his proposed $27.14 billion budget Friday as he stood in an example of what he said government should create -- an environment for private companies like Robinson-based Calgon Carbon Corp. to grow.
"I'm actually trying to act like you, a business," Mr. Corbett said to John Stanik, the president and CEO, after touring the company's Findlay site, where ultraviolet light technology to clean water is developed.
Mr. Corbett, who has been traveling around the state this week promoting his budget, reiterated his commitment Friday to not raising taxes and explained his thinking regarding higher-education funding, a part of his budget proposal that has received sharp criticism.
Under his proposal, the 14 state-owned universities would see a 20 percent reduction from the current budget. Three state-related schools -- the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State and Temple -- would see a 30 percent cut. The schools also saw sharp cuts in state funding this year.
Mr. Corbett said he looks at the cuts as a percentage of the schools' operating budgets. For Pitt, the cuts represent 2.1 percent of the budget. For Penn State, it's 1.6 percent.
"In the overall scheme of things, that's not as bad as it could be," he said. "It could be a lot worse."
PG VIDEOMr. Corbett said it is "not necessarily" his goal to reduce state contribution to higher education to zero, but he said the cuts do have a purpose.
"My goal is to make them look at how they are spending their money," he said.
The state budget cuts should encourage schools to control their costs, not automatically raise tuition. But he pointed out that schools have increased their tuitions at rapid rates even in years when state funding increased.
"Giving them money didn't keep tuition down," the governor said. "They continued to increase it anyhow."
The Findlay event may have been an opportunity for Mr. Corbett to answer his critics, but it didn't appease them. Members of the advocacy group One Pittsburgh covered themselves with a red carpet on the sidewalk outside the Duquesne Club, Downtown, chanting that Mr. Corbett's budget steps on "the 99 percent."
First Published February 18, 2012 12:00 am
