Rendell slashes Pa. spending
Friday, December 18th, 2009
In order to account for the lack of revenue from legalized table games, Governor Rendell has slashed state funding for some medical centers, museums and educational institutions by 50%.
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The funding reduction is bad news for the Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic, which was counting on 26,000 dollars in state aid.
Heather Wilson is the Director of Major Gifts for Lancaster General Health Foundation, which runs the clinic. She says the organization needs every dollar it can get, since it often treats patients who can't afford their bills.
Wilson: For each child that is on Medicaid or a Department of Health payment we take a significant loss for each of those children. And the money from the state helps us to ensure that we remain the safety net to ensure comprehensive craniofacial team services.
State funding accounts for ten percent of the clinic's annual budget.
Rendell also cut funding for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Children's Institute in Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia's Fox Chase Institute for Cancer Research, among other operations.
State-related universities were exempt from the cuts, since a funding reduction would have barred them from receiving federal stimulus dollars.
VERY disappointing, especially since the passage of a budget assures these institutions that their funding is coming. They then have to spend money first and INVOICE the state against the total amount of their grant. When that money is slashed by this pocket-veto, it puts these institutions in peril. Most of them do not have that extra cushion to counter the blow of a cut if grant money first has to be spent in order to invoice the state. Totally unfair!