Protesters head to Harrisburg for Gov's budget address

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Protesters head to Harrisburg for Gov's budget address

POSTED: Tuesday, February 5, 2013, 9:57 AM

Gov. Corbett will give his annual budget address later this morning, and protesters from Philly and elsewhere in the state will be at the capitol to greet him. Fight for Philly is among those who'll be there to demand more funding for education and social programs, and an end to gifts to big business like the so-called Delaware loophole that allows corporations to avoid paying Pennsylvania hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Decarcerate PA will be protesting ongoing investments in prisons, which include twin facilities to replace Graterford.

After two years of painful budget cuts, Corbett has already signaled that more austere cuts will likely not be on the menu: he'll hold steady on higher-ed funding, perhaps increase funding for education, and will invest $20 million toward getting 1,200 people with intellectual disabilities off our 15,000-person-long waiting list for services, which includes 3,500 people considered to be in "emergency" status. It's not clear whether he'll speak to the state's Medicaid expansion.

Big-ticket items like public-employee pensions and transportation funding are also on the table, through proposed reforms of future employees' benefits and an initiative to un-cap a wholesale gas tax. How that last will jibe with Corbett's no-new-taxes pledge remains an open question.

Image: Evan Lopez

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