PRINTER'S NO. 443
No. 4 Session of 2005
INTRODUCED BY PETRI, WATSON, CLYMER, O'NEILL, WRIGHT, BALDWIN, BARRAR, BOYD, BROWNE, CALTAGIRONE, CAPPELLI, CURRY, FABRIZIO, GINGRICH, GODSHALL, GOOD, GOODMAN, GRUCELA, HERSHEY, JAMES, M. KELLER, LEH, MACKERETH, MAITLAND, R. MILLER, NICKOL, PHILLIPS, READSHAW, REICHLEY, ROBERTS, ROSS, RUBLEY, SCAVELLO, SCHRODER, B. SMITH, STERN, E. Z. TAYLOR, TIGUE, YUDICHAK AND DALLY, FEBRUARY 14, 2005
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, FEBRUARY 14, 2005
A RESOLUTION 1 Directing the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to study 2 existing State aid funding formulas. 3 WHEREAS, The Legislative Budget and Finance Committee is a 4 bipartisan, bicameral legislative service agency consisting of 5 12 members of the General Assembly established by statute to 6 conduct studies and make recommendations aimed at eliminating 7 unnecessary expenditures, to promote economy in State government 8 and to assure that Commonwealth funds are being expended in 9 accordance with legislative intent and law; and 10 WHEREAS, The Legislative Budget and Finance Committee is 11 authorized to conduct a wide range of research activities 12 pertaining to the operation and performance of State-funded 13 programs and agencies; and 14 WHEREAS, Existing State aid formulas do not adjust for 15 population or client growth, despite the inherent and increasing
1 unfairness this places on Pennsylvania residents and taxpayers; 2 and 3 WHEREAS, Notwithstanding a 1991 public hold-harmless 4 pronouncement, the State's funding formula for education has not 5 been adjusted since 1991, resulting in a tremendous and 6 increasing variance in per student school education funding; and 7 WHEREAS, The State's funding formula used by the Department 8 of Aging to allocate Area Agency on Aging moneys has not been 9 adjusted to incorporate the 2000 Census figures or population 10 growth since 1990; and 11 WHEREAS, The State's MH/MR funding formula has not been 12 adjusted for increases in client enrollment in more than two 13 years; and 14 WHEREAS, The State's PennDOT county maintenance allocation 15 formula has not been adjusted for population growth or vehicular 16 traffic growth since 1997; and 17 WHEREAS, Those counties in this Commonwealth which have 18 experienced the greatest increases in population growth have 19 incurred dramatic reductions in per person funding, per client 20 funding, or both, because State aid formulas have not been 21 adjusted to account for the population and/or client growth; 22 therefore be it 23 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives direct the 24 Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to study all existing 25 State aid funding formulas and their impact on the 67 counties 26 of this Commonwealth; and be it further 27 RESOLVED, That, in furtherance of its study, the Legislative 28 Budget and Finance Committee: 29 (1) Identify existing State aid funding formulas 30 currently in use in this Commonwealth. 20050H0004R0443 - 2 -
1 (2) Determine the criteria used to distribute funding 2 under each of the current State funding formulas. 3 (3) Develop criteria to measure the impact of 4 population-based State aid funding formulas. 5 (4) Develop criteria to measure the impact of client- 6 based State aid funding formulas. 7 (5) Determine what data should be used to accurately 8 reflect population/client enrollment. 9 (6) Determine how and when to adjust State aid funding 10 formulas to accurately reflect population/client enrollment 11 shifts between the counties of this Commonwealth. 12 (7) Report its findings, conclusions and recommendations 13 to the House of Representatives within 120 days. L21L82DMS/20050H0004R0443 - 3 -