Press release: Highlights of Corbett's 2011-2012 budget proposal
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A press release from Gov. Tom Corbett on highlights of his 2011-2012 budget proposal.
Today, Governor Tom Corbett presented his 2011-12 budget to the state legislature -- a budget that is balanced and does not raise taxes for the residents of Pennsylvania.
"I'm proposing something we haven't had in a long time: a reality-based budget," Corbett said. "To the people of Pennsylvania, the taxpayers who sent us here, I want to say something you haven't heard often enough from this building: We get the picture. It's your money."
"The electorate, its trust scraped to the bone by lies and half truths, isn't going to stand for another broken promise," Corbett said. "I said we'd cut. I'm not asking you to read my lips. I'm asking you to read my budget."
Specifically, the new, $27.3 billion budget focuses on improving four key elements: fiscal discipline, free enterprise, limited government and reform.
"Government will never be cost-free. But it must be freed from the culture of churning through cash that farmers and clerks and mill hands and nurses earned dollar-by-dollar. They know the value of their money better than we do," Corbett said. "We need to be better stewards of their wealth."
The new budget cuts government spending by 3 percent, most of which is done by consolidating programs, targeting inefficiencies and reducing or eliminating discretionary financial grants.
It maintains, and in some cases expands, programs to protect its people and provide services, including care for the commonwealth's neediest citizens, supporting our State Police and military troops as well as making schools safer for our children.
Incentives will be offered to encourage growth and improvements in Pennsylvania's business communities and education system.
Facing a $4.16 billion deficit, hard choices had to be made. Some programs supported by the state for years were cut.
"In past years we have seen one-time gimmicks and sleights of hand. Harrisburg raided the Rainy Day fund. It's gone... and it's still raining. They applied federal stimulus money to the operating budget. The only thing it stimulated was the appetite to spend more," Corbett said.
"We have to change the culture of this place. It means we stop the one-time fixes and gimmicks that have barely held the machine of government together," Corbett said. "It's time to peel off the duct tape and get to work on what's broken underneath."
First Published March 8, 2011 12:55 pm
