When Governor Tom Corbett unveils his second budget Tuesday, Pennsylvania will be at least $500 million in the red — even after a year of spending cuts across almost every sector of state government.
The recipe for how the Republican administration got to that point includes a dash of deliberate policy decisions, a pinch of what critics claim are overly optimistic revenue projections and a heaping helping of a state economy that still hasn’t rebounded to pre-recession levels.
Ahead of Corbett’s speech to lawmakers, observers are bracing for more cuts — though no one could say where those might come. Public education, which took a $1.1 billion hit in the administration’s 2011-12 spending plan, seems a likely target for 2012-13. Read more.