Today, at approximately 10:30 am, Governor Ed Rendell will announce the state’s budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

After finally getting its appropriations from the state two months ago, Penn State will be looking forward to today’s announcement with a little fear. The process for obtaining next year’s appropriations is underway and Rendell’s announcement today will play a large role in determining how much money will be allocated to the university.

Penn State has requested $360.9 million in appropriations for this year which is just a small increase from December’s $334 million in funds that the university received.

The way this works is that between February 16 and March 3, the House will hold hearings in order to adopt agency budget requests.  Then, legislative leaders and administration officials work together to ensure that both the House and Senate pass identical spending plans. After the Legislature agrees on a budget plan, the Governor then must sign it for it to become law.

Fingers crossed.

You can catch all the action live on PCN today at 10:30 am.