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When discussions on the recently passed state budget began five months ago, Republican leaders warned against the dangers of caving to temptation in spending too much while we face so much economic uncertainty.
I am glad to say that the Fiscal Year 2022-23 budget and related legislation met that goal while still being historic in its scope of helping Pennsylvanians struggling today while setting the Commonwealth up for a secure future tomorrow.
Despite having a large budget surplus, I am proud to say spending was kept in check, matching spending growth with our population change and increases in inflation.
In addition to that, this budget reflects the sound financial principle of saving for tomorrow by growing our Rainy Day Fund to $5 billion -- a historic amount -- while carrying forward a significant budget balance to help guard against a projected recession and anticipated state revenue shortfalls.
Much like many Pennsylvania families, our budget used this good fiscal climate to pay off our budgetary debts incurred in prior years as we worked with limited resources to keep government open and available to help Pennsylvania families and provide core government services.
Pennsylvanians should also be proud to see their state government step up to return taxpayer investment to individual Pennsylvanians by significantly increasing the base amount for the Property Tax and Rent Rebate Program and helping those struggling to deal with the high price of energy by increasing the availability of LIHEAP funds.
This spending plan also includes both a historic once-in-a-generation tax cut for job creators and tax fairness for small businesses. This moves Pennsylvania forward in modernizing its tax structure and increasing competition with other states so we can drive natural growth and community investment to help our residents find family-sustaining jobs, end brain drain and grow our economy as we look to become "the Envy of the East."
Significantly, this budget provides a total Pre-K through 12 education increase of $1.58 billion over last year. This funding enhances our long-standing commitment to public school students and helps ensure school districts can keep property taxes low.
On top of that, this budget significantly our commitment to the Education Improvement Tax Credit Program with a historic $405 million to help empower families to ensure students are not stuck in failing models or lack a good education because of their ZIP code.
The budget also deploys the remaining federal American Rescue Plan Act funds across Pennsylvania with necessary one-time expenditures to support things like infrastructure improvements and local water and sewer projects.
Pennsylvanians should be proud that one of the many areas where federal funds are being used to help with conservation efforts. This will help drive forward our state constitutional guarantee of "clean air and clean water," and furthers the history of Pennsylvania preservation and creation of parklands so our beautiful state can remain so for generations to come.
This budget helps deliver on public safety initiatives by supporting our law enforcement and prosecutors to keep our streets safe. We also set aside $115 million in federal funds to provide for violence prevention and prosecution across our Commonwealth. In state funding, we provide significant taxpayer dollars to bring on 200 new state police troopers to keep our roads and communities safe.
We also made sure that we used state funds to continue to help our nursing homes and other assisted living facilities by providing them with $250 million in additional funding and significantly increasing their Medicare reimbursement. We also ensure preservation of health care access -- especially in rural communities -- by increasing the rate EMS companies receive from Medicaid while providing additional funding for doctor and nurse student loan forgiveness plans to incentivize professional availability in Pennsylvania's underserved areas.
State budgets are more than just a balance sheet of income and expenditures. They are a complex maze of spending priorities, policy decisions and related legislation that has a significant impact on Pennsylvania for the coming fiscal year.
At a time with so much at stake, and so much on the line, I am proud of the product we put in place for the people of Pennsylvania. It takes what we have today and helps people in immediate need, continues our investment in our future generations and guards against significant disruption from sudden changes in the global economy.
It is truly a budget for today and tomorrow.
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Rep. Kerry Benninghoff represents portions of Centre and Mifflin counties in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. First elected in 1996, he currently serves as House Majority Leader.