Senator Jay Costa: Hello, everyone. My name’s Jay Costa, State Senator here, and the Democratic Leader. And thank you very much for participating in this sort of live town hall chatter with all the branch campuses of the college. We want to say thank you very much, and thanks certainly, Dr. Bullock, and everyone involved in helping set this up and make these arrangements.
And I’m very honored and humbled that we are going to have a conversation with our Governor, Governor Tom Wolf, who’s joined us today. And this is the first time we’ve done something like this, and we certainly would make it available to all of you as we go forward. But would like to really open the discussion up first, certainly allow the Governor to provide some remarks about today’s activity, which the Governor gave his Budget Address. Where we continue to talk about the needs of Pennsylvania and what our Pennsylvanians need, particularly in the area of education, which has been a theme for the past 13 or 14 months here. So Governor, thank you very much for being a part of this presentation. And maybe want to welcome all the, Dr. Bullock and all the folks from the Community College of Allegheny County.
Governor Tom Wolf: Well, thank you. And, Senator, it’s great to be here. I think all of you know what a great Senator you have here, right? So I’m not going to go into that. But it’s nice to be with you. I did give my budget address today. And basically, I laid out two alternatives. And I sort of feel like the messenger with sort of bad news, and the news is this. If we want to do what we need to do in Pennsylvania for a bright future, we’re going to have to pay for it. That shouldn’t be real astonishing, but it seems to be something that the folks here in Harrisburg need to understand. Because we haven’t been fully paying for the things that we’ve wanted to spend money on.
I believe we ought to invest money in places like the Community College of Allegheny County. I believe we ought to invest in public education. I believe that is the surest way to assure a bright future for Pennsylvania. And it’s something that our ancestors understood; we need to invest in education. To be able to do that, we have to actually have the budget, a balanced budget, that allows us to do that; and we haven’t had that. We haven’t had that for years. And I’ve got to say, it’s been a bipartisan thing; although, I think it’s accelerated in the last four years, that we have used one-time fixes and things that make that budget anything but balanced. And you don’t have to believe me. The rating agencies have downgraded our debt. The Independent Fiscal Office has said, we have a big, like close to $2 billion budget deficit staring us in the face for this coming year, 2016-2017; that starts July 1. So we have that problem.
Now here’s what we can do about it. We can plug that hole. That’s really hard because that’s going to take some recurring revenue. Or we can ignore it. And if we ignore it at the state level, here is what is going to happen. There will be no money, no money—not just a little bit. There will be no money for the Community College of Allegheny County coming from Harrisburg. There will be no money. There will be a billion dollars less money coming to our public school systems, to our public schools. That means many schools will have to shut down. Last time we came even close to this, I think back in 2011, what over 20,000 educators were furloughed.
Senator Jay Costa: Hm-hmm [affirmative], lost their jobs.
Governor Tom Wolf: Or somehow lost their jobs. Schools closed and property taxes went through the roof. We have a broad-base tax at the state level, and we have the choice that we can fund public education, and education from pre-K all the way to higher education, including the Community College of Allegheny County with some state funds, as well as local funds, a balance. And if we do that right, we’re not putting all of the burden on the shoulders of local property tax payers. If we do what we’ve been doing for the last how many years, shifting that burden to local taxpayers, property taxes are going to go through the roof; they’re going to continue to go up. And we cannot afford to do that in my opinion.
So we need to make a choice right now, and that is—and again, I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings here, but we either fund the budget the way we’re supposed to at the state level, and relieve pressure on local taxpayers, and maybe equalizing a little bit what is going out to our schools. Or advocate completely responsibility at the state level, and let the locals take up an even bigger share of the burden, which means local taxes will go up even higher. So what I did in my budget speech today is layout those alternatives, and those alternatives affect places like the Community College of Allegheny County. Because if we don’t get our act together here in Harrisburg, more of the burden for funding really good, important programs and institutions like the Community College of Allegheny County, that’s going to shift to your shoulders; and you’re going to have a harder time doing what we need you to do for all of us at the state level, and that is keep doing the great job you’re doing. So that was my message today Senator, and I’m happy to –
Senator Jay Costa: Well, it was a very strong message, and very clear, and it was directed to the, certainly to the General Assembly with the people of Pennsylvania to talk about the situation we find ourselves in and the consequences. You know, today was billed to have an opportunity to hear from folks at the various settings of the Community College. So I’d like to start, if I could ,with Dr. Bullock. If you have any questions, Dr. Bullock, or you may want to raise some issues. And then we can talk with the students, as well, as we go forward, from each of the campuses. Dr. Bullock.
Dr. Quintin B. Bullock: Well, thank you. And it’s an honor to welcome Governor Wolf and to extend this exceptional opportunity to Community College of Allegheny County students, faculty, staff and administrators to engage in this conversation with you, and to have a personal time to talk with you about the state budget. We’re always excited about Senator Costa, one of our alums, who continues to make CCAC very proud, and to really represent the College and the state as a whole.
Today, we are honored to have all eight of our locations. We do have students still coming in. Just to start the questions off, I would like to ask, first, thank you for your dedication to restoring funding to education—in particular, community colleges. What do you believe the impact would be if this funding is not restored?
Governor Tom Wolf: Go ahead.
Senator Jay Costa: Well, I think, serving as Treasurer, Dr. Bullock, I think you know and the folks there know that we see it firsthand. And the consequences are, it’s going to be a reduction in classes and opportunities for our students. It’s going to require additional increases in our tuition rates. And likely, more pressure on our counties to provide the resources that we need to be able to do what we need to do. So those are the consequences of us not doing the job we were hired to do and elected to do. And if we allow, we allow for an inadequate amount of revenue making the way to our college, community college system, and it results in those things I’ve mentioned. Governor, you may want to add some more.
Governor Tom Wolf: Well, first of all, Dr. Bullock, it’s good to see you again. You were a gracious host when I came and visited one of the campuses of CCAC.
Dr. Quintin B. Bullock: West Hills.
Governor Tom Wolf: So, yeah, West Hills. So it’s good to see you again. I agree with what the Senator just said, and I just want to add to that. I’m from your county. I’m from the South Central part of Pennsylvania. I care deeply about what goes on at CCAC. If you don’t have the resources you need to make sure that your students have the skills we need them to have, my life is going to be diminished. That’s true of early childhood education. It’s true of basic education, K through 12. And it’s true of higher education, including our community colleges. We don’t do this because we’re trying to be nice people. We do it because it actually makes a difference to the future of Pennsylvania. And so if the state, again, as the Senator said, if the state doesn’t do its job, that means funding cuts, all kinds of problems for CCAC, you’re going to have to look locally to find those alternative resources. But I bet you that part of what you’re going to do is try to cut program, cut costs. You’re going to have to. And that is going to be a very, very bad thing for all of us, all over Pennsylvania. We need you to do what you’re doing, and that’s what makes this budget crisis so important. We’ve got to resolve it, and I think we’ve got to resolve it the right way. Because if we don’t, it means a much impoverished commonwealth. It means a much impoverished Community College of Allegheny County.
Dr. Quintin B. Bullock: [Unintelligible 00:08:20]. Thank you, Governor.
Senator Jay Costa: Any other questions out of the Allegheny Campus at this point, before we go on to maybe another campus?
Dr. Quintin B. Bullock: Any questions?
Senator Jay Costa: How about we go to Boyce Campus? I see that the Boyce Campus has a number of folks there. Any of the Boyce Campus have any questions for us? Don’t be shy.
Male: We’re very shy here at Boyce Campus. But we have the Honorable Charles Martoni here.
Senator Jay Costa: Thanks, Dr. Martoni, great to see you. Thanks—Dr. Martoni’s the President of the Community College Boyce Campus, a County Councilman at Allegheny County, as well. Does a great job on both fronts.
Governor Tom Wolf: Honorable Dr. Martoni, it’s good to see you.
Senator Jay Costa: Any questions about what we’re doing here, or what your thoughts might be, Dr. Martoni, or anyone else?
Dr. Charles Martoni: I think you were very clear. You gave us a good picture of what we’re here for.
Senator Jay Costa: Okay.
Dr. Charles Martoni: Thank you.
Male: I have a question that’s sort of run through my mind.
Senator Jay Costa: Sure.
Male: Is no budget better than a bad budget?
Senator Jay Costa: You know, I—I’m sorry. Well, I’ll let Governor start on that one.
Governor Tom Wolf: Yeah, thanks.
Senator Jay Costa: [Laughs]
Governor Tom Wolf: He passes the hard ones onto me. I think they’re both the same. I mean, I think that’s what we’ve got to face up to that no budget, and a bad budget, are actually the same thing. And when I’m saying that, the bad budget that I’m railing against, that I’m trying to get the folks in Pennsylvania to side with me is that if you put a budget that’s not balanced, that doesn’t have any money, then if you’re being honest, you really can’t support places like CCAC. So it’s the same thing. A bad budget has no money in it. No budget, there’s no money obviously. So I’m not sure what the difference is. The only defense is in the minds of some of the people who say, well, a bad budget, that’s smoke and mirrors, I can pretend that’s a good budget.
And actually, over a number of years, you can get away, having been in business, I know you can get away with one-time fixes for a very short time. But you take a budget like we’ve been given for the last couple of years to the bank, and they’re going to throw you out of the office. I think in that regard, and the point I’m trying to make is, if you’re being honest, we don’t have the money to do anything. And that’s just like having no budget at all. So, you know, I would love to have all kinds of funding for CCAC. I would love to have funding for institutions for higher education, for, as you know, for education—that’s my passion. And I think it’s a passion because, not because it’s a personal passion, but because it actually is something that I know, if we do it right, we’re going to make Pennsylvania a lot better. We have more people doing what you’re doing at CCAC, we’re going to be in a better place. But if we don’t have a budget that has any money in it, we can’t afford it. We’re borrowing money right now just to keep the lights on, and that’s where we have come—we’ve come to a train wreck. So just to answer your question, no budget, a bad budget, same thing.
Senator Jay Costa: Any other questions from the folks from Boyce? How about we shift over to South Campus? Any questions out of South?
Male: [Unintelligible 00:11:45].
Male: I believe I have a question.
Senator Jay Costa: Certainly.
Male: For the Governor. Recently, the political sphere has been talking about public community colleges becoming free for everybody. How do you believe that this type of legislation would affect the budget of the State of Pennsylvania?
Governor Tom Wolf: That’s a great question. The premise is that we need to make higher education, as we have basic education, more accessible, more affordable. And, you know, if we can get to free, that would be great. But we’re not going to do any of that if we don’t have any money at the state level to make that happen. This is a, this is why this is such a crisis. Because you are feeling—what you just expressed there is something that affects individuals, but it affects all of us. Because if you don’t have access to a CCAC through modest or no tuition, through programs that really are relevant to what you need, if you don’t have that because we at Harrisburg aren’t providing you with the funding, that’s a really bad thing. And if we don’t provide you with the funding, again, we’re not going to be able to make CCAC or any institution of higher education more accessible. We’re not even going to be able to make basic education accessible in a lot of places in Pennsylvania. And that’s going to be a really bad thing. So that’s why we need a budget.
You know, I am in strong support of the things that go on at CCAC. I am in strong support of what, of anything we can do to make CCAC and other institutions like that more accessible more affordable But again, we’ve got to deal with the reality—and again, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, so don’t shoot the messenger. If we don’t do our job in Harrisburg and raise the money between the personal income tax and the sales tax, we aren’t going to have the money to invest in the things like this that we need to invest in.
So I’m trying to make the case that I don’t see us going one way or the other; but today what I did was try to lay out the alternatives. We’re at a fork in the road. If we go down the fork that says we are not going to fund, we’re not going to try to have a balanced budget, we’re going to try to impoverish the state, that’s going to lead to bad outcomes for the things that you just talked about—free, no tuition at CCAC, accessibility, affordability. All those things, you can forget about. If on the other hand, we take the other fork, the other path, and say, we are actually going to fund this; we are going to invest in these few things. And I understand, we can’t invest in a lot of things, but education is central to what a free market, limited government democracy should be about. We should be about educating our fellow citizens, And any way we can, we need to invest in that. I know you can’t throw money at any problem, but we need to invest in that. If we don’t take that path that actually balances our budget, we’re going to impoverish ourselves, and we’re going to not have the outcomes that you just talked about, you know, accessible, affordable education. So that’s the choice we have. I’m on the side of let’s do it, let’s make this affordable; let’s actually fund places like CCAC. But I’ve got to tell, there are a lot of people who believe that we can use smoke and mirrors and get by with budgets that won’t fund the kind of programs that we need, the kind of programs that you want.
Senator Jay Costa: And if you look at the amount to have Allegheny Community College function with all its campuses, our budget’s about $110 million, probably broken up about 34, 35% from the state; probably 25 to 28% from the county; and about 40% from tuition. If in fact, the feds pass something that says community college is free, it would not only impact all of you without you all not having to put your 40% share in the mix; but both to the county and to the state, it’s a significant savings to us. What it does is it allows us the opportunity to make those investments elsewhere; and maybe shift them to maybe more early learning programs, or into programs that are designed to help create jobs, and grow jobs, once someone leaves the community college. So those are some of the things that I think we can look at. We certainly support the President, in terms of that conversation. And really, when he talks about the value of having a strong community college in the counties and in our region, that’s really the thing that’s important. And his acknowledgement and the Governor’s recognition, as well, that the community college system across Pennsylvania is critically important, particularly, if we’re going to try to grow jobs in the Commonwealth.
Governor Tom Wolf: Right.
Senator Jay Costa: I’d like to go now, I know that some folks just sat down in Washington County. They missed some of the stuff that we talked about, so if I can just jump to North Campus right now, and ask anyone at North if they have any questions; and then we’ll come back to the guys and ladies in Washington County. Anyone at North Campus?
Female: My question is that we are now in about the eighth month without a budget. And then, my question’s for the Governor, what has your team or you talked about in strategies to try to resolve the budget from last year? And in addition to resolve a budget for this year? Because at this point, it looks like we could go on two, three, four years and never agree on a budget. If we don’t do something differently, I don’t see how any changes are going to take place.
Governor Tom Wolf: Okay, actually we’re in the seventh month of the budget impasse. But here’s what my strategy has been . First of all, I laid out what I wanted in a budget back in March of 2015. That clearly was not acceptable to the Republicans. They came back to me with a budget June 30 that was not acceptable to me. So we spent the next, I don’t know, four or five months talking about how we’re going to compromise; and we reached a compromise. It passed, the General Appropriations part of that did pass the Senate 43-7. It actually, with some hard work, passed the House. And it did make it through the final consideration, and we never got to the point of talking about revenues that will go along with that; but we had the General Appropriations. We had agreement on where we were going to invest that money.
I, today, stood up and said, okay, we still don’t have a ’15-’16 budget, and we don’t have it because I think there’s some cognitive dissonance going on here, some denial. People on one side think that we actually can pretend to have a budget, we can pretend to pay for things like CCAC; but we really don’t have the money. And I said, but actually, we have to have the money; we’ve got to raise it. And we’ve been doing this for long enough that we’re now at the point of a train wreck. The Independent Fiscal Office, Standard & Poor’s, I mean, you name it, everybody in the outside, even the Republican financial wizards have said, we have about a $2 billion deficit. Well, it’s a big number. Some are 1.7, 1.8; we’re at 2.2. But for the ’16-’17 fiscal year, we’re looking at $2 billion deficit.
That means we don’t have any money. And so, we can pretend that, you know, we’re just going to go on as business as usual; but if we don’t have the money, what happens in any organization, especially the state, is you have to borrow money just to keep the lights on. It means you don’t have the money to invest in things like CCAC. So I think the strategy right now has to be to stand up and say, we have a choice, Pennsylvania. And the choice is, a budget that is actually funded honestly, or one that we just acknowledge, we’re not going to do our work here in Harrisburg, and we’re going to make the locals or the feds pay for whatever it is we’re going to get in Pennsylvania. That, I think, is wrong, but that is the choice we have. And this is a democracy.
I’ve weighed in on the choice I want, which is we have adequate funding, and we fund institutions like CCAC. But I understand, there are people over there on the other side who don’t want to fund CCAC, and they don’t want to fund anybody because they don’t want to raise money at the state level. That’s the choice we have, and it depends on how people vote in the ’16 elections. It depends how people vote in the legislature who are still here, as to which one of these paths we chose. But my hands, I am limited as to what I can do. The Senator is limited as to what he can do. We can talk all we want. We can try to convince all we want. But in the end, we have got to convince people to do something that is very difficult and change patterns and bad habits of the past to get to a budget that is balanced, that actually has the money, so that, my preference, we invest in institutions like CCAC. But you’re right to point it out, we don’t have a budget, and I think all of us in Harrisburg should bear the blame. But I am working to get one, but it has to be a real budget with real dollars, or we’re sunk.
Senator Jay Costa: And I guess the question is, what does that mean to have a real budget? What that means, just so folks understand, the Republicans in the General Assembly passed a budget, House Bill 1460, the latest proposed spending plan. But what they don’t tell you is that it comes up $318 million short of being able to fund that plan. Now we have an obligation to provide for a balanced budget. The plan they put on the Governor’s desk, which he vetoed in part, does not provide that balanced budget. As I mentioned, $318 million short. That would be like us, the Board of Trustees, with $110 million budget saying, you know what, we’re only going to fund 97, we only have enough money for 97% of it; we’ll worry about the last 3% at some other later point in time. We can’t do that. That’s not—we have a fiduciary obligation, whether it be as Trustees, or as Members of General Assembly, have an obligation to provide for a balanced budget. There’s no way the Governor could have executed a full budget that doesn’t provide for the revenue necessary to fund the programs that were appropriated. That’s just simply not the way you do business.
It also takes into consideration, the fact that, there’s no recognition that that number, that lack of $318 million and no revenue to support how we get out of that hole grows to almost $2 billion—anywhere from $1.8 to $2.2, depending on how you count to $318 million, if it rolls over or not. The bottom-line is, we have an obligation to look at those type of shortfalls and address them. And folks have put their head in the sand, and they’ve not wanted to make the tough decision. As the Governor said in his speech and has been saying throughout, we have a choice. We can manage decline, which we’ve been doing for the last four or five years, or we can make investments—investments in education, human services, economic development, job growth, community revitalization. That’s the path that we want to go down, and we have certainly been standing with the Governor as we go down that path. And I think that’s really what’s at stake at this point in time.
Any other questions? Yes.
Male: Yeah, this question is for Governor and Senator and Costa.
Senator Jay Costa: Okay.
Male: A recurring theme here. And that theme is, budget and funding. In the last little bit I just heard, it seems like the budget you’re proposing is balanced. My question about that balanced budget, does there exist in that budget any moneys that are designated to take care of some of the unfunded costs, like unfunded pensions? That’s my first question. And second question is, what is it that the Democrats are proposing in the way of raising the money they need to balance this budget that certain individuals in the Legislature and the Senate are opposing? What is your sticking point here?
Governor Tom Wolf: Okay, the first question about the pension. The budge I’m proposing actually does fully fund this year’s share of the pension obligation, that we have a $50 something billion unfunded liability. We’re not going to get rid of that in one year. So the start to that is to make sure we’re doing what we haven’t done in the past, and that is fully funding that pension liability. That’s a $500 million increase this year. So my budget does propose doing that. The second question is, how are we going to fund this? My budget proposes a personal income tax at 3.4%, that would be the third lowest income tax in the country. Now no one, I mean, there isn’t anybody in politics I have met yet who says, “Gees, I’d really like to raise somebody’s taxes. The problem is, if we don’t do that at the state level, your property taxes, your local taxes are going to go up; and resources that this money would be invested in, like public schools, like CCAC, would go down. So that combination is a bad win, and so I’m proposing that we actually balance the budget with revenues, adequate revenues at the state level, 3.4% personal income tax up from 3.07. That’s the change. And that we fully fund the obligations we have, including the $500 million increase for pensions.
Senator Jay Costa: Rich [? 00:25:10], thank you for your question. That’s a great question. With respect to pensions, working with the Governor in a bipartisan way, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate sat down, and we crafted a Pension Reform Plan that addresses specifically what you’re talking about. We did that same thing back in 2010, where our office led the effort to put together what’s known as Act 120, that made changes to the pension system, by reducing pension benefits by 25%; but putting us on a course where we would work through our problems, that resulted in the $500 million the Governor talked about. But ’16-’17 would be the last year in this five or six-year plan to address those large pension spikes. So once we go forward about ’15-’16 –
Governor Tom Wolf: Levels off.
Senator Jay Costa: – that levels off. And we don’t have to worry about those major increase any longer. But at the end of the day, we recognize that pensions needs to be part of the solution, to help us free up those dollars, to allow those dollars to be invested in other areas. But the question about, how we’d get to a place where, you know, certainly we don’t want to have to raise revenue, but we have no choice. We can, again, get on a path where we don’t raise revenues, and we paste it over with paper, as the Republicans quite frankly have been doing the past four years. And we find ourselves in this position again. This isn’t me saying it, it’s not the Governor. It’s Standard and Poor’s. It’s Moody’s. It’s the Independent Fiscal Office. It’s all telling us through their bond downgrades, saying that you all have got to fix your structural deficit; and you’ve got to take steps to generate the revenue to be able to do that, to be able to sustain the programs that are important to you in this Commonwealth.
To us, education is a top priority, as is human service programs, as are social service agencies, as are job development programs, and job creation, and community revitalization. Those are the things that we’ve been focusing on, we’ll continue to focus on. But if we don’t make these investments, there are consequences. Property tax relief, larger class sizes, fewer dollars going to our higher education folks, which continue to kick up the tuition costs—those are the consequences of doing nothing. And by the way, when we disinvest in our human service programs, you know, we don’t see it necessarily at the state level. It’s the local communities that feel the pressure of a lack of mental health programs in a community, and lack of drug and alcohol programs in a community. That’s when local police agencies get involved. That’s where the emergency rooms are dealing with situations in crisis that are impacting their community. That, in my view, is why we see a lot of things going on in the drug and alcohol community today, taking place today; and my view, a direct result of our lack of investment in those human service programs, that in the aggregate are about $315 million the last four years.
Male: To me, an increase in our state income tax seems like such a small thing to me, compared to what it is now. I still don’t understand why certain individuals are making a huge issue out of this. It doesn’t make any sense to me, especially if what you’re doing—if you could accomplish what you said you want to do—would actually balance the budget. I just can’t understand the logic of opposition to this.
Governor Tom Wolf: Well, it becomes even less understandable—you’re right. It’s a small, 33 basis point increase in the personal income tax. But it’s even more, it’s even more confusing to understand why someone wouldn’t be for that when the alternative is a huge increase in local taxes. And that’s a lot less fair. I mean, there are people who are going to be thrown out of their homes because the local property taxes go up. They might not even be affected at all by personal income tax, if we don’t tax retirement income. So, you know, I am as confused and perplexed as you are as to why we don’t take this basic—[unintelligible 00:29:05], we’re still the third lowest personal income tax in the United States. And it’s a small price to pay to plug this huge hoe that has been built up over years, and is going to hit us like a train wreck in this 2016-2017 fiscal year. So I appreciate what you said. I couldn’t agree with you.
Male: [Unintelligible 00:29:27] individuals can do?
Senator Jay Costa: I will—Rich, you guys are in the North. I think you can communicate with your legislators, who represent the Northern communities of Allegheny County, and Southern Butler, and the like, and talk to them about what you all just, you talked about with us, and what we’ve been articulating.
Governor Tom Wolf: Yeah.
Senator Jay Costa: Deliver the message. Because I think the consequences are real, and they’re not good consequences for us going forward as a state. So thank you very much. Hey, can we jump down to Washington County? I know that some folks joined us in the conversation. We’d love to hear some questions from Washington County folks.
Male: Thank you very much. Just have a question, revenue. In new sources of revenue or existing revenue, say more [unintelligible 00:30:13]. What does that contribute to the budget, and where does that fit into the education? Adding, you know, putting it in the education budget, or does it?
Governor Tom Wolf: Yes, that’s a great question. It does. A hundred percent of what I want to raise with the severance tax would go to education. But the proposal I’ve made in this budget is a 6.5% market value at the wellhead severance tax, with—now this is going to get technical—with 100% credit for the impact fee. So the impact fee stays in place. If you’re paying the impact fee, then I would say, calculate your shale tax at 6.5%. Whatever you’ve paid for impact fee, subtract that; you owe us the difference. For 2015-’16, that would’ve provided nothing. And I think 2016-’17, we’re thinking that would provide about $200 million of additional revenue, all of which would be, my proposal again, we have a democracy; I’m not the only one who has a say here. But my proposal was that that would go for education.
Male: Okay, would that be yearly increase in revenue, or a straight?
Governor Tom Wolf: Well, it would go up and down with the price of natural gas. So right now, it’s at a relatively low number. If natural gas prices recover, that would be a higher number. So it would depend.
Senator Jay Costa: Any other questions?
Male: [Unintelligible 00:31:32]. Thank you very much.
Governor Tom Wolf: Thank you very much. Good question.
Senator Jay Costa: Can we go back to the Allegheny Campus for any more additional questions?
Dr. Quintin B. Bullock: You know, the President always has questions.
Senator Jay Costa: That is okay. That’s good. Thank you, Dr. Bullock.
Governor Tom Wolf: [Laughs}
Dr. Quintin B. Bullock: Again, thank you, Governor Wolf. And notwithstanding the budget situation, what do you believe are the greatest opportunities that our state will capitalize on throughout your tenure as Governor?
Governor Tom Wolf: Well, there are a number of things. First of all, I am a native of Pennsylvania. I grew up here, built a business here, raised a family here in your county. And I’ve got to tell you, I know there’s a natural modesty in Pennsylvania, but we have an amazing Commonwealth. We have one of the highest numbers of institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania of any state in the United States. We have a great size, we have a great location. We have great scenery. We have two world-class cities. I think what I want to see is a clear investment in the things that we have here, and natural resources, a great workforce. I mean, I could go on, and on, and on. I think we ought to invest in those things. And I think the best way to invest in our core resources, our core advantage, is to keep investing in education; is to make sure that we’re doing a good job there at all levels—pre-K, K through 12, higher education, including community colleges.
Second thing I think we need to do is do a better job of connecting different parts of Pennsylvania together. It still takes too long to get from parts of the state to Pittsburgh. It still takes too long to get from most parts of Pennsylvania to Erie. We need to change that, and I want to change that.
And third, I think we can take better advantage of our three ports. We have a great deep-water port in Philadelphia. We have a great Great Lakes port in Erie. We have a great river port in Pittsburgh. If you look at that civil engineers have said about what we’re doing with those assets, we’re not doing enough. And that’s not just Pennsylvania, but all around. So I would propose to do something there.
Again, this is the kind of philosophy I’m bringing to government. We have an amazing state; we need to invest strategically in things that will make that state even greater. Not disinvest, which is what the alternative is. And that gets back to our two paths. One path leads to utter destruction, and to decay, and a downward spiral. The other path leads to reinvestment, investment in those few things that could make Pennsylvania great. And I just named the three that I think are key—education, transportation infrastructure, and specifically, infrastructure that has to do with our ports.
Dr. Quintin B. Bullock: And one of the exciting things about community colleges is that we embrace and support the needs of business and industry. However, across the Commonwealth, we only have 14 community colleges But there is a need to offer workforce training in surrounding and/or distant communities. What’s your views, or suggestions, or even thoughts on incentives to community colleges that desire to expand beyond our county to identify a new presence in another county to assist them in responding to the education of workforce training need?
Governor Tom Wolf: Is that a loaded question?
Senator Jay Costa: [Laughs] Well, you know, what Dr. Bullock is specifically referenced to, we currently have, Allegheny County Campuses as we know it; but we also have been active for a number of years in Washington County, and we’re looking to grow in Washington County. Because he’s identified, along with some local officials there, a very specific need to branch out what we do; particularly, the work along the lines of what we’re doing in the West Hills Center and other places. But the question is whether or not the Commonwealth would be able to provide incentives to not just Allegheny County, but other community colleges, to be able to go beyond their, you know, jurisdictional borders, to reach out to surrounding counties to be able to do that.
I think my view is, I think certainly the Governor has an appreciation for that and values that, as I do. But again, comes down to having resources available to be able to do that. And that’s what, I think, we’re really fighting for, to make certain that we first and foremost stabilize education, stabilize what needs to be done with investments or community colleges. And then being able to expand that with resources to be allow us to be able to provide some incentives to get that. Because we, what we don’t want is to have, going through considerable expenses at different counties to establish a community college system, when you have the ability to partner with an existing college and be able to do what needs to be done.
So I think that’s something we certainly would certainly be mindful of and want to do along those lines. But, you know, the first question is, how are we going to address that with resources; and that’s really what our challenge is. Again, it comes down to the question that the Governor raised—we’re at a crossroads. We can either do what we do now and not make investments; or we can look down and get on a different path that allows us to make investments, and to allow us to be creative in terms of how we provide the educational services to our communities.
Governor Tom Wolf: Yeah, it really does come down to the funding. I want to make government, I want to make provision of any service we have, especially education service, as efficient as we can possibly make it. And that means partnering, that means working together across community lines, across institutional lines. I want to be sensitive, at the same time, to whatever the political realities are, so that we’re not stepping on anyone’s toes. But as the Senator said, all of that comes down to, do we have the will? Do we have the resources at the state level to provide the necessary investment to make those things happen? To make sure that students, that our citizens all across the Commonwealth, can get the education they need, a relevant education, relevant to whatever they’re going to do with their lives.
Senator Jay Costa: I think we have some folks at the Braddock Hills Center. Am I correct, Dr. Bullock?
Dr. Quintin B. Bullock: Yes, there are.
Senator Jay Costa: Hi. Any questions from the Braddock Hills folks?
Female: Yes.
Senator Jay Costa: All right. Go ahead.
Male: Yeah, this question is for Governor Wolf.
Governor Tom Wolf: Okay.
Male: Some of the federal candidates running for President at this time, they have advocated for free community college for two years. Others on that level say that that is a state issue for the Governors. My question for your, Governor Wolf, would be, A, what is your thoughts on the possibilities of this? And if it does happen, I mean, where would the funding for that come from?
Governor Tom Wolf: That’s a great question. I don’t, I’m indifferent as to whether it’s federal or state. I imagine they’re—I’m not sure who was saying it’s a state versus federal, but if it’s the state’s responsibility, I think right now, it’s a shared responsibility. We get some funding from the feds, some funding from the state. But it’s something, however we fund it, it ought to be done . We need to make education, pre-K, K through 12—I’m repeating myself here.—pre-K, K through 12, higher education, including community colleges free. They ought to be as accessible as we can make them. They ought to be affordable. They ought to be something that we encourage people to do at every stage of life. Because that’s how we’re going to keep refreshing our talent pool. That’s how we’re going to make—I mean, I grew a business here in Pennsylvania. We have an amazing workforce here, but it’s the only we’re going to make it better is keep investing in it. So that as the economy changes, as the demands for skills change, and go in new directions, we have the resources we need to make sure that our workers, our citizens, get those skills. And that means a really good, accessible, affordable, relevant, I think community college system. So whether it’s the state or the feds, we need to make that investment. And again, it gets back to, if we’re going to make that investment, we’ve got to do it honestly; and we’ve got to make sure we have the revenues and the resources in a place like Harrisburg to make that kind of thing possible. Otherwise, we can’t do it.
Senator Jay Costa: Any other questions for Braddock Hills?
Male : No, I think everyone’s good.
Senator Jay Costa: Well, let me say this to everyone participating, it’ s 3:00, and we have to, the Governor’s got to move on to the next program. But we want to say, thank you all of you for participating, and your interest, in terms of what’s taking place here in Harrisburg. And more specifically, you know, acknowledging and taking the time to recognize that what we do here has an impact at the communities that you all are participating in, or the campuses that you’re communicating with us with.
Dr. Bullock, on behalf of the college, I want to say, thank you for helping us arrange this. And to all the professors who helped make this happen today, we want to say, thank you for your participation. We hope to be able to do it as we go forward. We hope that you’ll go out and be advocates for what we’ve been discussing, making investments, particularly in our community colleges.
And, Governor, thank you so very much on this very busy day for you, especially, to take some time to spend with us and with our students from Community College. So thank you very much.
Governor Tom Wolf: Thank you very much.
Senator Jay Costa: Appreciate it.
Governor Tom Wolf: Thank you everybody, Dr. Bullock. Thank you again.
Senator Jay Costa: Thanks, Dr. Bullock, and everybody else there. Appreciate it very much.
Dr. Quintin B. Bullock: Thank you.
Senator Jay Costa: Have a good one now. See, everybody. Bye-bye.
[clapping]Senator Jay Costa: That’s it. Thank you.