AP relies on blockers on and off the field.
if only a investigation on our Government could happen.........
face)(*^%
Gov. Tom Corbett is proposing an overhaul of how
Pennsylvania state government uses the proceeds from a 1998 legal settlement
In his first budget proposal, Corbett wants to
shift the annual deposit of hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement money into the state’s main bank account, rather than keep it as a separate fund for public health programs, and then
use the lion’s share f
or a program that isn’t related to public health.
The Corbett administration expects $360 million in settlement proceeds to arrive in April.
A 2001 law set the money aside for a range of public health programs, including smoking cessation efforts, biotech research and adultBasic, the state’s health care plan for low-income adults who earned too much to qualify for Medicaid, but weren’t old enough to qualify for Medicare.
Under Corbett, $220 million would go toward a newly created economic development fund, called the
Liberty Loan Fund, while the rest would help Corbett erase a projected multibillion-dollar deficit.
At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Corbett’s budget secretary, Charles Zogby, said the proposed transfer
reflects the reality that money from the tobacco settlement fund had already been
diverted a number of times under Corbett’s predecessor, Ed Rendell, for routine obligations, including school employee pensions.
“The past actions with the tobacco fund backed us into a corner,” Zogby said.