The House and Senate were in session for brief periods last week, and at this point, only the Senate is now anticipated to return to Harrisburg next week. While there continues to be a flurry of activity in Harrisburg on mostly COVID-19 related policy, also churning away in the background is the 2020-21 state budget.

While it appears that the timeline for the 2020-21 budget may be stretching into the early part of June, it’s still unclear whether we will get a 12-month budget from the state or a two-part (5 month/7 month) budget. They continue to grapple with their own revenue challenges and the complexities of building a budget around federal stimulus funds. We expect to have more information in the near future as things begin to become more concrete.

CARES Act: Speaking of CARES Act funds, PDE has posted the “official” allocations of the larger pot of CARES Act money ($523 million for PA) on it’s website. They’ve submitted their application to the feds, and at some point, school districts and charter schools will be required to submit an application for their share of the funds (this may be done via eGrants and will likely require LEAs to indicate their CARES Act-eligible use of the funds). Additionally, there have been a lot of questions about the share going to non-public schools, and there continues to be discussion about the US DOE’s FAQs on this issue. More to come on this front in the near future…

Property Tax Freeze: We’re still not out of the woods on the property tax freeze front, however, the bills did not come to the floor this week. There continues to be opposition within the House to both property tax freeze bills (House Bill 1776 and House Bill 2431), so neither have moved beyond initial steps. There was an attempt to vote House Bill 2431 on second consideration earlier this week, but after a caucus in which the bill was discussed, it was not brought up. 

Taxpayer Flexibility: We’re still waiting to see if House Bill 2460 winds up on the agenda for House Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday, May 13 (or if the committee actually meets at all). The bill would extend the property tax discount period by 30 days in every school district and would also eliminate the penalty through December 31, 2020 (or through a period of 6 months from issuance of the bill). More information to come about whether this legislation moves in committee next week or not…

FBI Clearances: Governor Wolf signed House Bill 360 into law today — it is now Act 18 of 2020. As reported last week, this will provide some clarity for those individuals that have had their FBI clearance expire during the period of the emergency declaration. For those individuals, they will have until December 31, 2020 to update their FBI clearance. The other two required clearances must be updated in the normal course — both the PSP clearance and the child abuse history clearance can be obtained online, and there is no extension to obtain these clearances.

Continuity of Education: This week, the Senate Education Committee is holding a virtual public hearing on continuity of education during the COVID-19 crisis. They will be hearing from education associations about how LEAs have been rolling out and evolving their continuity of education plans and how they transitioned to these plans following the school closure order. Certainly this hearing has serious policy implications for the budget and for the 2020-21 school year as well. Click here to watch the hearing live at 11:00 am on Monday, May 11.

There will certainly be much more to come as we go through the next several weeks, so stay tuned!

Submitted by Hannah Barrick, Director of Advocacy, PA Principals Association