State Senate expected to OK funding

The state will restore $36.3 million in funding to the University if a bill that cleared the State Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday is enacted. The bill, sponsored by State Senator Vincent Fumo (D-Phila.), would restore almost all of the University's state funding for the current fiscal year and would provide the University's Veterinary School with vital state support. In the 1991-92 fiscal year, the University received $37.6 million from the state. But last February, Gov. Robert Casey recommended that lawmakers eliminate the University's appropriation and the legislature did not include any funding in the budget. The bill is part of an 11-bill, $73.5 million appropriation package for higher education. The appropriation would come from approximately $200 million in "unappropriated available revenue," according to a statement issued by Fumo. The package has "a good chance" of passing the full Senate intact, Democratic Party spokesperson Jim Hertzler said yesterday. Hertzler said he would not speculate on the bill's chances of passing the State House of Representatives or of gaining approval from Casey. "I don't know whether Fumo has had a conversation with the governor about [the bill]," Hertzler added. Acting Executive Vice President John Gould said last night that he is gratified by the committee's passage of Fumo's initiative. "We are very pleased that we have that level of support in the Senate," Gould said. "We are surprised that [a proposal] came this quickly. We had, of course, been encouraging him to support us and I'm happy that he has pursued it at this level." Gould said he does not know how the State House of Representatives or the governor will decide on the bill. "We have no indications of how [the governor] will decide, but we would hope that with revenues increasing for the Commonwealth, that [University funding] would be included," Gould said. The University received none of the $41.2 million they had requested from the state legislature in September 1991 for the current fiscal year. Casey had previously recommended that the University receive no funding from the state. A statement released by Fumo cited the urgent need for funding to be restored to the University and other schools. "We simply cannot afford the loss of educational opportunity for our people or the damaging impact on our economy that this lack of funding has caused," the release stated. Fumo said that "Penn's threatened closing of its School of Veterinary Medicine" might result in the loss of 600 jobs at the University and approximately 2,000 jobs throughout the state. The $36.3 million represents 96.5 percent of the $37.6 million the University received from the state in fiscal year 1991-1992. The University had asked for full restoration of the $41.2 million requested for the current fiscal year and has submitted a request for a six percent increase in fiscal year 1993-1994. Of the $36.3 million, $16.5 million would go to general instruction, $1 million to dental clinics, $4.4 million to medical programs, $7.7 million to the Vet School, $3.8 million to the New Bolton Center, $1.2 million to the Center for Animal Health and Productivity, and $2 million for food and animal clinics, Hertzler said. Hertzler said that this appropriation would bring funding to a level roughly equivalent to the amount of money the state gives the special programs of state-funded universities. The other institutions on the funding bill are Hannemann University, Thomas Jefferson University, the Medical College of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia College of Osteopathy, Drexel University, Delaware Valley College, Pennsylvania University of the Arts, Philadelphia College of Textiles/Science, the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, and the Pennsylvania College of Podriatric Medicine. Funding for the Downington Industrial and Agricultural School was originally included in the bill, but was eliminated by the appropriations committee after it was learned that the school had gone out of business, Hertzler said.