U. gets $35 million in state budget plan

HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey recommended yesterday morning that the state legislature appropriate more than $35 million in state funds to the University for the 1994-95 fiscal year. Casey's last two budget proposals failed to include any appropriations for the University. In his final budget address as governor, Casey said his proposals represent "increased opportunity" for the entire "family of Pennsylvania." This year, the governor decided to include the University and several other private colleges as part of that family. At last year's budget announcement, Casey came under fire from many state lawmakers for slighting private colleges and universities. And last spring, to remedy what they saw as an error, lawmakers enacted legislation that funded the University retroactively for two fiscal years, totaling more than $50 million. Casey gave a handshake promise at that time to the University for more increases over the 1995 fiscal year. The governor's budget proposal funds the University at a rate 20 percent higher than it received this year, but 5 percent less than the state gave in fiscal year 1992. The largest block of money coming to the University from the proposed budget will be $15.5 million from the state's Department of Education, which will finance general instruction at the University. The state had earmarked only $11.8 million to the University in this area for the current fiscal year. An area which has received considerable coverage, the University's Veterinary School, saw no increase in its general appropriations. It received the same $7.5 million as it did each of the last two years. The New Bolton Center, a division of the Vet School, though, received $4.3 million, nearly 30 percent more than last year's amount. The governor's proposed budget also recommends similar increases for the Vet School's food and animal clinics and New Bolton's Center for Animal Health and Productivity. Additional appropriations were made through the state Department of Agriculture to the Vet School, totalling $207,000. The money will be used to institute a tripartite animal health system, consisting of state-run labs and labs housed at Pennsylvania State University and at the University. New Bolton Center will also be able to tap from $2.4 million in state funds to build a new incinerator. Gene Shank, spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture called Casey's proposals "the best I've ever seen from an agricultural point of view." None of the appropriations in the governor's budget are guaranteed, however -- the state legislature must still debate and vote on the final budget numbers by its June 30 deadline. Alfred Ferguson, assistant executive director for the House Appropriations Committee Staff, said he cannot imagine a full "reversal" of the governor's budget proposals which apply to the University. "I don't expect any real big debates on this, and I think everyone's assuming that it's settled," Ferguson said last night. But Paul Cribbins, the University's director for City and Commonwealth Relations, said he hesitates to assume that the numbers in Casey's proposed budget are set in stone. Cribbins said it's hard to predict if the legislature will make any changes in the budget, but he added "you never really know for sure." Serious deliberations on the budget will not begin in the legislature until May. But a recent concern among lawmakers has been over the University's accountability after receiving state funds. Cribbins said the University will have to file a report with the state this September to prove the University has used the state's money to "aid Pennsylvania students or provide service to Pennsylvanians." Paul Dlugolecki, executive director for the Majority Appropriations Committee, said his office is concerned mostly with two aspects of the University's funding -- Philadelphia employees who work at the University and the Vet School's impact on state agriculture. "Beyond that, I'm not sure that Penn does all that much for the Commonwealth," said Dlugolecki, who works under State Senator and Appropriations Chairman Vincent Fumo (D-Phila.).