Jun. 29, 2016
HARRISBURG – Rep. Rosemary M. Brown (R-Monroe/Pike) voted in favor of
Senate Bill 1073, the state budget plan for fiscal year 2016-17, on Tuesday, June 28. This budget received bipartisan support in the House and contains no new or increased personal income taxes or sales taxes on residents or businesses. After the vote, Brown made the following statement:
“I view this budget as a compromise, and I believe it represents a middle-of-the-road approach. It’s a bipartisan compromise, just like the recent votes to reform our state’s pension and liquor systems. I urge the Senate to consider this budget as soon as possible and get it to the governor for his consideration.
“This budget dedicates $660 million in new funding for Pre-K to 12, which includes $200 million in basic education funding that will be distributed with a new, fairer funding formula, which helps the majority of our local schools. The plan includes no new or increased taxes for households, which I am very glad to see. I’ve been against broad-based tax increases without a direction correlation to property tax reduction.
“Just last week, I spoke at a press conference where I stood with more than 100 members of my House colleagues and leaders, as well as the governor, to continue proactively and effectively addressing the opioid overdose epidemic. So I am very glad this budget plan also would spend a total of $15 million to fund programs and services related to this issue.
“While I am glad we were able to pass this budget plan Tuesday, I strongly believe we need to change the way future budgets are built, and instead of just assuming more will be spent year after year, we take more in-depth investigations into each and every department for ways to improve efficiencies. I introduced
House Bill 1069 this session, which calls for departments to provide efficiency reports to push this initiative.”
For more information about the budget plan passed in the House on Tuesday, or any state-related issue, contact Brown’s district office in East Stroudsburg located at 143 Seven Bridge Road, by calling 570-420-8301. Information can also be found on online at
RepBrown.com or
Facebook.com/RepRosemaryBrown.
Representative Rosemary M. Brown
189th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Krisinda Corbin
717.705.2032
KCorbin@pahousegop.com
RepBrown.com /
Facebook.com/RepRosemaryBrown