On July 11, S.B. 1073 (Browne, R-Lehigh) became law without the Governor’s signature. S.B. 1073 is the 2016-2017 General Appropriations (GA) Bill; it reads like a ledger and simply directs funds to different agencies and offices. While technically this means that Pennsylvania had a more-or-less on-time budget this year, legislation to raise revenue to fund the GA bill and to direct how the funds are to be spent lagged behind the GA bill by about a week.

While the GA bill distributes funds to different branches of government and state agencies, the “code bills” provide directives on how the money is to be spent. Most years, the GA bill is accompanied by bills to amend the Human Services Code, the Public School Code and the Fiscal Code. Some years, though not as often, bills amending the Tax Reform Code are necessary to raise revenue to fund the budget.

This year’s bill Public School Code bill, H.B. 1606 (Christiana, R-Beaver) passed the Senate today by a vote of 47-3 and the House by a vote of 172-18.Highlights of the bill include:

  • The Public School Building Construction and Reconstruction Advisory Committee shall review and report on whether the state should implement a comprehensive public school building safety program.
  • The State Board of Education shall establish an advisory committee to review data collection requirements imposed on public school entities and issue a report of its findings and recommendations to the Board and legislature.
  • Certain school districts within financially distressed municipalities may levy a payroll tax pursuant to the Local Tax Enabling Act in certain circumstances.
  • The Secretary of the Department of Education shall notify a school district that receives $2 million or more in educational access program funding in any one fiscal year that they are under “financial watch” status. These schools will receive technical assistance from the department as they develop a plan to improve their finances.
  • Establishment of The Public School Web Accountability and Transparency (SchoolWATCH), which requires certain financial information of a school district to be made available to the Department of Education and posted on their website; also each school district’s board shall post rules, regulation and policies on their website as required by state and federal law.
  • For teachers, paid absences will be allowed due to the death of a grandchild, and prospective teachers may serve as substitute teachers, subject to certain criteria and some continuing professional education credits may be carried over.
  • The Pittsburgh School District may enter into an agreement with an adjacent school district for the assignment of elementary and secondary students to the Pittsburgh School District if the adjacent school district has experienced a decline in enrollment and revenue.
  • School districts are to annually report the number of students with disabilities for which expenditures are under $25,000.
  • New programs including for Diabetes Management, The Drug and Alcohol Recover High School Pilot Program, the Administrative Partnership Grant Pilot Program and the E-chievement Program for hybrid learning.
  • A high school student may fulfill a math or science credit requirement by taking a course in computer science or information technology.
  • Commonwealth payments to pensions and social security reimbursements for charter schools and cyber charter schools are discontinued.
  • A true-up provision is included for payments to charter schools.
  • A community college located in a county of the third class with a population between 290,000 and 310,000 can appoint up to two trustees from a county where a campus is located for which no local sponsor exists.
  • Funding for Career and Technical Education Grants, community colleges, libraries, intermediate units, the Ready to Learn Block Grant and approved private schools.
  • Establishment of a Rural Regional College for underserved counties, which provides up to a two-year postsecondary education not to exceed the level of an associate of arts or sciences degree and which is active in workforce development.
  • The amount of tax credits under the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program increases by $25 million, now totaling $125 million. It also requires the Department of Community and Economic Development to give written notice of application approvals to businesses before August 15 or 30 days after receipt of an application.
  • Special education funding to school districts increases based on the special education funding formula established by the Special Education Funding Commission and provides that one percent be used for extraordinary expenses in providing services to students with disabilities.
  • The Department of Education can utilize up to $4.5 million of unencumbered funds to assist school districts declared to be in financial recovery status or identified for financial watch status.