Gov Corbett Proposes Huge Budget Cuts for PSU

Graham Spanier has not had a good week so far. And indeed, in all likelihood, neither have you.

Yesterday morning, many in the Penn State community tuned in to PCN to watch Governor Tom Corbett announce his budget proposal, one chockfull of budget cuts. According to the Patriot News, nearly $850 million was cut from this year’s budget by “eliminating funding for 103 budget lines, reducing funding for more than 150 appropriations and consolidating 55 others.”

Corbett’s plan included a massive and unprecedented cut to Penn State’s appropriations– an overall reduction of at least $182 million, not including various other cuts hidden in the many pages of the budget, cuts associated with Penn State’s massive array of extension programs. The cut reduces Penn State’s appropriation by more than 50%, down from about $330 million this year.

Penn State officials had been anticipating budget cuts– the poor financial standing of our state’s government is no secret– but according to President Graham Spanier, the university had not imagined that things would be this bad.

Spanier held a press conference today at the Outreach Building in Innovation Park responding to the massive cuts. We’re going to post the video as soon as it’s available, but until then check out this Storify that has some key comments from the event. Also check out the links to other coverage below! This story isn’t going away any time soon, so expect much more coverage in the coming weeks, especially once break ends.