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After Pa. passes $40B budget, what do you now want from your state government? | FOX43 Capitol Beat

Lawmakers all get a little something in the record-setting spending plan, but what do Pennsylvanians actually want from the people they send to Harrisburg?

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf has signed a roughly $40 billion budget package, before he spoke Wednesday at a Capitol news conference celebrating new funding for public schools. 

The budget legislation won approval Friday in the Republican-controlled Legislature. 

The package holds the line on taxes, and puts billions of dollars in federal coronavirus aid into reserve.

Wolf is touting $300 million extra for school district operations, including setting aside $100 million of that for the poorest districts.

In exchange, Republicans got Wolf to repeal a regulation to expand the ranks of lower-wage salaried workers who qualify for overtime pay.

Wolf, though, says more still needs to be done for public schools.

The Pa. Department of Education posted a spreadsheet breaking down the education funding allocations in the state budget for each school district.

According to a press release, the budget investments include:

  • $200 million increase in the Fair Funding Formula;
  • $100 million to support underfunded school districts through the newly implemented Level Up initiative;
  • $50 million in special education funding;
  • $30 million for early education;
  • $20 million for Ready to Learn;
  • $11 million for preschool Early Intervention; and
  • $5 million for community colleges

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