Think Tank Recommends Budget Changes to avoid College and School Cuts

[JPZenger]

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/05/pennsylvania_budget_ideas_the.html

The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has recommended ways that PA. can reduce costs and close tax loopholes to avoid drastic cuts in funding to public schools and colleges. Article excerpts:

"Crack down on Medicaid provider fraud: Some estimates have found that 7.9% to 13% of Medicaid provider bills costs are fraudulent. Rebalance long-term care: Pennsylvania spends 22% of the long-term care budget on home- and community-based services. Raising the average to just 25% would allow the commonwealth to access a higher federal matching rate, saving $248 million in 2012.

PA’s prison population has skyrocketed by 500% between 1980 and 2010, and costs have grown to $1.8 billion. Most state prisoners are not violent offenders, but strict mandatory sentencing guidelines have filled the prisons. States like Michigan and Texas have used treatment programs and other evidenced-based strategies to reduce prison populations.

Close the Delaware loophole: Tax loopholes allow large multistate and multinational corporations to shift income earned here to tax-haven states like Delaware, leaving little or no income on the books in PA. This loophole should be closed — $500 million to $600 million."

Other proposals at the linK;
Enact a drilling tax on producers of natural gas
Opt-out of federal “bonus depreciation”:
Close the tobacco tax loophole:
End the sales tax vendor discount giveaway:
Close the Amazon sales tax loophole:

[Divernan]

1. I oppose draconian cuts, but Pitt is pushing the envelope re wasting money

I agree with all the suggestions for cost reductions listed in your post. Please forgive me the following rant about Pitt's economic priorities.

I have 2 degrees from Pitt, and worked there for 7 years as a professor/researcher. Now that I'm retired, I take classes there several days a week. I don't want to see the University have to cut out majors or departments.

The University is certainly frugal when it comes to clerical employees. I've met one group of women, all senior citizens - one of them in her 80's! - who work part time at Pitt. They are paid 50 cents an hour over the minimum wage - no benefits.

I was on campus this week after a one week break between sessions, and saw MASSIVE amounts of decorative landscaping being installed. Look, if you have a hedge that's made up of two solid rows of well established plants, 5 feet deep, and four feet tall, why do you add a THIRD row of similarly sized plants, making the hedge 8 feet deep? Why do you have landscape design requiring planting of massive amounts of annual flowering plants in spring AND fall? If the area surrounding the Cathedral of Learning is almost completely shaded, why squeeze in another row of 12 foot tall shade trees?

Then we have Schenley Plaza - the area between Hillman Library and the Carnegie Museum. It used to be a parking plaza. Parking in Oakland has always been at a premium. Obviously, the less there is, the more can be charged. It's now about $7 to park while attending a 2 hour class - IF you can find an available spot in public parking. Back in 2004, the Plaza was turned into a park again, losing hundreds of parking places. This also impacts negatively on the thousands of people who come into Oakland every day for medical appointments/treatments at the many medical centers and hospitals in the university area, as university students and employees compete for parking with patients and visitors. Granted the Plaza is the property of the City of Pittsburgh, but have no doubt the Pitt, as the largest employer in the county, has the deciding voice on what the City does with that plaza.

There is a $750,000 carousel in the plaza to make it "family friendly". In the hundreds of times I have driven past this carousel, I have never seen it in operation. Maybe families cannot afford to park in the area? There are four food kiosks in this park, open seasonally, i.e., when classes are in session. Now construction has started on a year round full service, extra fancy, Eat-n-Park restaurant - with a liquor license applied for - in Schenley Plaza. I'm sure it will be well designed and lovely - but it's more competition for all the small local pubs, restaurants and ethnic food street vendors in Oakland.

Between the overly lush landscaping and the nifty new restaurant next to the rococo carousel, I was reminded of Marie Antoinette's Le Petit Trianon in Versailles - newly restored at a cost of $7.8-million, underwritten by the Swiss watch manufacturer Montres Breguet, which made timepieces for the ill-fated, luxury-loving queen.

There should be a construction sign erected at the plaza, reading "Let Them Eat Smiley Face Cookies!"

(That's an "in" joke - The Smiley Face Cookies are Eat-n-Park's icon.)