Pitt funding a gamble

Pitt could receive state funding, which is already four months late, in the next two… Pitt could receive state funding, which is already four months late, in the next two weeks.

But the amount of money the University receives will hedge on the fate of a gambling bill.

A 1966 law requires the state to give Pitt appropriations — or funding — every year. Normally, Pitt learns how much money it will receive by July 1, the day the Pennsylvania state budget must be approved. But negotiations in the state legislature lasted three months longer than normal, ending on Oct. 9.

Now, the state is awaiting the outcome of a table games bill before it will decide — by creating a separate bill — how much money Pitt will receive.

A bill that allows and regulates table gaming in Pennsylvania could pass in the next week. The state government expects the bill to bring in $200 million in tax revenue over the next year.

“Everything is tied to table gaming,” said state Rep. Ron Miller, R-York County, who serves on the state House’s appropriations committee.

“It may be possible for the non-preferred institutions to get funding without table games, but it depends on how you do the math,” he said.

State law classifies Pitt, along with Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities, as a “non-preferred” institution. This means that legislators determine how much money the universities will receive by creating bills separate from the state budget. The bill that contains Pitt’s appropriation went to a state Senate committee on Oct. 8. It could be two or more weeks before the bill passes, said Miller and state Rep. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park.

If the bill passes, Pitt will receive $176 million in appropriations — about $12 million less than the $189 it originally expected to receive. This could be the smallest appropriation Pitt has received in three years.

Pitt’s appropriations haven’t arrived this late since 2002, when the University received its state appropriations several days before Christmas.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said Pitt has other funding streams that will help “tie us over” until the state money arrives.

Fedele said that the decision of Pitt’s appropriatiosin doesn’t always come on July 1, but it usually isn’t this late.

State legislators said the worldwide economic recession contributed to the delay in budget decisions and decisions about Pitt’s appropriations. The state had two choices: It could either raise revenues by increasing taxes or cut state spending on state programs.

“State government, not just Pennsylvania but across the country, is not immune to this recession. No area of state government funding was sacred,” Ferlo said.

Gov. Ed Rendell and many Democrats in the House and Senate favored increases in taxes to keep state spending the same or more. The majority of Republicans in the House and Senate favored cuts in spending over increasing taxes in the middle of a recession, Miller said.

The two sides were not able to agree on a state budget for months, Miller said. Rendell signed a budget with spending cuts and no large tax increases on Oct. 9, according to the State budget office website.

The budget was three months and one week past the July 1 deadline mandated by the state constitution.

A separate law, which dates to 1966, mandates that the the state send appropriations to Pitt. That same law states that the bill for Pitt’s funding should be approved July 1, the same day the state budget is due.

State appropriations accounted for 11 percent of Pitt’s budget in the 2008 fiscal year.