News Date: Friday, July 12, 2024
On July 11, Gov. Shapiro signed the general appropriations bill containing spending amounts for FY 2024-2025 budget
On Thursday, July 11, Gov. Shapiro signed into law SB 1001, the commonwealth general appropriations bill for the 2024-2025 fiscal year which began on July 1. The nearly $47.6 billion spending plan represents a $2.72 billion, or 6.2%, increase over FY 2023-2024.
In general, the FY 2024-2025 budget does not increase taxes, but does provide several tax cuts for businesses to deduct more losses and students to deduct loan interest. For counties, many lines and programs important to counties received flat funding or nominal increases, with a few exceptions, including intellectual disabilities and autism services and long-term care, Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILTs) for state forest and park lands, and tourism initiatives. Overall, the largest funding increases were dedicated to K-12 education, providing for a nearly $1.1 billion increase in K-12 across several budget lines.
The FY 2024-2025 state budget does not adequately address one of counties’ top legislative priorities for 2024, increasing county mental health funding, with just an additional $20 million increase in county mental health base funding for this year. This is woefully less than the $250 million increase counties sought to begin rebuilding the crumbling community-based mental health system. Additionally, while not allocated to counties, schools received an appropriation of $100 million for physical safety and mental health grants, which merges two prior school-based programs into one combined grant program.
Counties believed the $20 million increase that was provided in the FY 2023-2024 budget was a down payment and an act of good faith that the legislature and administration were ready to start making serious investments into the community-based mental health system. Demand for mental health services continue to skyrocket while the funding for those services maintains a slow crawl. Given the severity of the situation, Pennsylvania counties were hopeful that this would be the time for the state to get serious about investing in the mental health services so many members of our communities depend on. It will once again be up to Pennsylvania counties to continue providing these critical services with inadequate funding. The full county statement regarding the final FY 2024-2025 state budget can be found here.
A more detailed explanation of line items impacting county government, as well as other budget resources, will be available in the coming days on CCAP’s Budget News webpage.
More Information:
General Appropriations Bill- SB 1001
In general, the FY 2024-2025 budget does not increase taxes, but does provide several tax cuts for businesses to deduct more losses and students to deduct loan interest. For counties, many lines and programs important to counties received flat funding or nominal increases, with a few exceptions, including intellectual disabilities and autism services and long-term care, Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILTs) for state forest and park lands, and tourism initiatives. Overall, the largest funding increases were dedicated to K-12 education, providing for a nearly $1.1 billion increase in K-12 across several budget lines.
The FY 2024-2025 state budget does not adequately address one of counties’ top legislative priorities for 2024, increasing county mental health funding, with just an additional $20 million increase in county mental health base funding for this year. This is woefully less than the $250 million increase counties sought to begin rebuilding the crumbling community-based mental health system. Additionally, while not allocated to counties, schools received an appropriation of $100 million for physical safety and mental health grants, which merges two prior school-based programs into one combined grant program.
Counties believed the $20 million increase that was provided in the FY 2023-2024 budget was a down payment and an act of good faith that the legislature and administration were ready to start making serious investments into the community-based mental health system. Demand for mental health services continue to skyrocket while the funding for those services maintains a slow crawl. Given the severity of the situation, Pennsylvania counties were hopeful that this would be the time for the state to get serious about investing in the mental health services so many members of our communities depend on. It will once again be up to Pennsylvania counties to continue providing these critical services with inadequate funding. The full county statement regarding the final FY 2024-2025 state budget can be found here.
A more detailed explanation of line items impacting county government, as well as other budget resources, will be available in the coming days on CCAP’s Budget News webpage.
More Information:
General Appropriations Bill- SB 1001