HARRISBURG (TNS) — Pennsylvania missed its constitutionally required deadline to have a balanced budget passed by the start of the new fiscal year because of a number of unresolved issues — the most contentious of which is funding for the University of Pittsburgh.
House Republicans attached a rider to its state-related appropriation on Monday that would require Pitt to certify that it is not conducting any fetal tissue research using remains from voluntary abortions. This annual appropriation — totaling more than $151 million this year — is used to give in-state students a $15,000-per-year tuition discount.
The state Senate last week unanimously approved more than $580 million in funding for the state’s four state-related universities — Pitt, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln. Expecting a fight in the House, the Senate broke from tradition by packaging them all together in hopes of easing the fight. Senate leaders, including Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, have continued to support Pitt.
Goujng into the holiday weekend, House Republicans aren’t sure how they can have it both ways: ensure funding for Pitt’s crucial tuition discounts, while still appeasing the most conservative members of its caucus.
House Republicans’ ire at Pitt has been growing for years. It started among a number of anti-abortion members and vocal anti-abortion advocacy groups — most notably by the Pennsylvania Family Institute.
Since then, this disdain for Pitt has spread to more members for issues beyond its fetal tissue research, such as former Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg’s role on the state’s five-member reapportionment committee. Nordenberg was the tie-breaking vote to advance new legislative maps that drew some local Republicans into the same district or lost their voter registration advantage.
A number of Pittsburgh-area lawmakers sit on Pitt’s board of trustees, including Reps. Natalie Mihalek, R-Upper St. Clair; and Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills. However, Mihalek and each of southwestern Pennsylvania’s more than 20 House Republicans — except for Rep. Lori Mizgorski, R-Shaler — supported adding the rider to prohibit Pitt from conducting this National Institutes of Health-funded fetal tissue research.
On Thursday, Mihalek said she isn’t sure if this is the best approach. Instead, she believes the “more appropriate” route is to amend the state’s Abortion Control Act to address lawmakers’ concerns with this research, rather than tying up money used to fund the discount for Pitt students.
”It’s not connected to them,” Mihalek said. “We certainly don’t want to short-change the student to advance a policy.”
Jason Gottesman, a spokesman for House Republicans, said members are still trying to “find a way” to ensure Pennsylvania families continue to receive their in-state tuition discount, while advancing this policy decision.
Costa, who is a trustee and represents the Senate district that includes Pitt, called House Republicans’ actions “one of the most irresponsible acts I’ve seen” in his 26-year tenure in Harrisburg.
”This remains a problem that House Republicans created,” Costa said. “They’ll be responsible for families and students losing $10,000 a year in tuition discounts.”
Monday’s amendment doesn’t require Pitt to halt its funding, noted Rep. Eric Nelson, R-Hempfield, earlier this week. It puts Pitt “in charge of itself” to decide if it wants to continue conducting this research or receive its state appropriation.
Costa, however, said this is a “false choice.” Costa credited the medical school for its numerous breakthroughs and noted that Pitt’s medical research ranks No. 5 in the nation in NIH funding because of these successes.
Costa said Pitt continues to be one of the remaining sticking points in budget negotiations. Otherwise, leaders in the closed-door negotiations have prepared a spending plan while still negotiating a number of policy issues. Among those are how the state spends its remaining $2.2 billion in one-time, federal stimulus funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
On Tuesday, Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget secretary Greg Thall said he expected “three or four” of Wolf’s proposals for the remaining federal stimulus from the ARP to make it to the finish line. Wolf has spent the last four months touring the state, touting his $1.7 billion plan for some of the remaining federal funds that he said would help small businesses, help health care organizations in recruiting caregivers, support a property tax rebate program and pay for conservation projects.
Costa said he’s confident Pennsylvania’s public schools will receive a “very generous” spending increase — a priority for Wolf and Democrats in the General Assembly.
