Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
President Obama said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the “stimulus package” — was for “shovel-ready projects.” The president has already stated this wasn’t true, saying “Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.”
A lot of the stimulus was nothing more than payoffs to his union supporters, including teacher unions, which endorsed him for 2012 last week without knowing who the Republican candidate is.
Gov. Ed Rendell’s 2010-11 budget had $1.04 billion in stimulus money in the education budget. That money was gone in 2011-2012.
Gov. Tom Corbett lost a little less than 4 percent of his revenue stream before being elected. He confronted this funding loss, overcame it and, in reality, increased state spending on education by nearly $54 million. This, when the overall budget was reduced by approximately 3.4 percent.
Anyone doubting these numbers should visit pamoneymatters.com and click the Pa. Budget link. You will see the elimination of ARRA money in education funding. Perhaps if all our media reported the facts below the flashy headline, we would have a more informed electorate.
Congratulations to Corbett for passing a budget on time that holds the line on spending — something Rendell never did. Thanks to Corbett for acting in the best interest of the entire state.
Paul Olijar
Plum
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