Politics PA

Tens of thousands of students attending Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities will escape a spring tuition surcharge if newly passed legislation becomes law.
Officials with the University of Pittsburgh as well as Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities said as much yesterday after separate Senate bills with state appropriations for each school passed the state House late [...]

Pennsylvania’s tax collections were both under budget estimates and behind last year’s pace in November, according to figures released by the Rendell administration today.But through the first five months of the new fiscal year, the total revenue shortfall is only a fraction of the size it was last year, and at this point state budget officials are holding off on calls for spending freezes.

New Jersey Gov.-elect Christopher J. Christie and Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell met for about 45 minutes this morning to discuss economic development and how to attract more businesses to the region.

In an abrupt reversal, Gov. Rendell yesterday abandoned plans to convert the soon-to-close Willow Grove Naval Air Station into a state-administered emergency and defense hub.
Rendell wrote to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that because the military had declined to assign a flying mission to the Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s 111th Fighter Wing at the base, [...]

The issue of how much to tax table games proposed for Pennsylvania casinos remains unresolved, prompting one Bucks County lawmaker to accuse Gov. Rendell of holding money for state-related universities “hostage” to it.