SUNBURY— The pandemic is leaving Pennsylvania with a big budget hole, but there is hope. During a recent “State of the Valley” presentation, two local state lawmakers talked about what the state is facing financially. In Pennsylvania’s two-year budget cycle, the state is anticipating a five billion dollar “hole” between revenue and expenses.
“We can’t make that up by raising taxes, we can’t make that up by shear cuts so we are discussing right now new and inventive ways or ways that we can make cutbacks that there aren’t a lot of consequences to them,” Linda Schelgel-Culver (R-108th, Sunbury), state representative, said. She says that she has not found any items that don’t have consequences if they are cut; but, they continue to work on the budget.
In addition, she has made her voice known that now is not the time to cut funding for early learners, “We have this commitment to build that foundation of our future learners which impacts our workforce, our armed forces, our families, and our school structures frankly going forward.”
State Senator John Gordner (R-27th, Berwick), who was also part of the presentation, said, there is hope. He says the state is receiving some revenue from federal medical assistance which they had not projected, “We have received in the first two quarters about a billion dollars more from the federal government in F-MAP monies and it looks like in the third and fourth quarters we may get an additional extra billion dollars,” Gordner said.
Gordner also says that the U.S. Treasury is allowing the state to use money that they placed in restrictive accounts to help with budget shortfalls.
