HARRISBURG (TNS) — Negotiators continued to work behind closed doors Monday toward reaching agreement on a now late state budget, with one of the unfinished pieces being a new plan to straighten out Pennsylvania’s enrollment-challenged higher education system.
The constitutional deadline for a budget passed Sunday night, but the lack of an approved spending plan for 2024-25 likely will not affect state operations unless it lasts many weeks. On Monday, Rep. Ed Neilson, D-Philadelphia and chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said there continued to be positive signs coming out of negotiations.
Since the process started, Mr. Neilson said, there have been two “breakdowns” and on both occasions the parties have resumed negotiations the following day. He equated those situations to “family squabbles” and said it was a good sign negotiators were able to move past them.
Nonetheless, this week’s Fourth of July holiday creates a scheduling speed bump. Senators are scheduled to be in Harrisburg on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then back again on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, if necessary.
Rep. Rob Mercuri, R-Allegheny, said at least part of the ongoing negotiations on Monday were focused on the higher education “blueprint” that Gov. Shapiro unveiled early this year. Mr. Mercuri said there was continued optimism they “can hammer out a package on higher education that will move us forward as a state.”
Some community colleges and universities in the State System of Higher Education have seen enrollment declines of more than 30%, tied in part to declines in the number of Pennsylvania high school graduates.
In seeking changes, one point of contention is how to provide money to the University of Pittsburgh and three other state-related universities.
A bill pending in the Democrat-controlled state House conveys Mr. Shapiro’s proposal to end the practice of having lawmakers approve those appropriations separately, via votes that must attain a two-thirds majority because they involve giving state money to non-state government entities. Instead, Mr. Shapiro has proposed giving the universities money via a grant program that would be part of the Department of Education budget, requiring only a simple majority vote.
Shapiro has said the two-thirds votes lead to “political games” — last year, funding for Pitt and the other schools was not approved until mid-November — and getting rid of it is one part of his plan to fix what he described as 30 years of disinvestment in higher education.
On Monday, Mercuri said some Republicans view the proposed change to a simple majority vote as a non-starter, because they see it as unconstitutional.
Another conflict that must be resolved is how to pull together a group of leaders to essentially help plot the future of higher education. The bill pending in the House contains Shapiro’s idea of a new, 15-member Board of Higher Education whose role would include “setting the Commonwealth’s higher education policy agenda.”
Mercuri said the fact that Shapiro would get to choose from various stakeholder groups to appoint nine of the 15 members makes it “prohibitive” in terms of accountability and transparency. “That is inherently unworkable,” Mercuri said.
