1 1 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 2 * * * * 3 Budget Hearing 4 State-Related Universities 5 PSU, Pitt, Temple & Lincoln 6 * * * * 7 Appropriations Committee 8 Main Capitol Building Majority Caucus Room 140 9 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 10 Tuesday, March 3, 2020 11 --oOo-- 12 MAJORITY MEMBERS PRESENT: 13 Honorable Stanley Saylor, Majority Chairman Honorable Rosemary Brown 14 Honorable Lynda Schlegel-Culver Honorable Sheryl Delozier 15 Honorable George Dunbar Honorable Jonathan Fritz 16 Honorable Matt Gabler Honorable Keith Greiner 17 Honorable Seth Grove Honorable Marcia Hahn 18 Honorable Doyle Heffley Honorable Lee James 19 Honorable John Lawrence Honorable Jason Ortitay 20 Honorable Clint Owlett Honorable Chris Quinn 21 Honorable Greg Rothman Honorable James Struzzi 22 Honorable Jesse Topper Honorable Jeff Wheeland 23 Honorable Ryan Warner Honorable Martina White 24 25 1300 Garrison Drive, York, PA 17404 717.764.7801 Key Reporters [email protected] 2 1 MINORITY COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: 2 Honorable Matt Bradford, Minority Chairman Honorable Donna Bullock 3 Honorable Morgan Cephas Honorable Carolyn Comitta 4 Honorable Maria Donatucci Honorable Elizabeth Fiedler 5 Honorable Marty Flynn Honorable Edward Gainey 6 Honorable Patty Kim Honorable Stephen Kinsey 7 Honorable Leanne Krueger Honorable Stephen McCarter 8 Honorable Benjamin Sanchez Honorable Peter Schweyer 9 10 NON-COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: 11 Honorable Mike Turzai, Speaker of the House 12 Honorable Curt Sonney, Majority Chairman Education Committee 13 Honorable Mark Gillen Honorable Tom Mehaffie 14 Honorable Brad Roae Honorable Craig Staats 15 Honorable Meghan Schroeder Honorable Tim Briggs 16 Honorable Carol Hill-Evans Honorable Marylouise Isaacson 17 Honorable Kerry Benninghoff Honorable Dan Williams 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Key Reporters [email protected] 3 1 STAFF ATTENDANCE: 2 David Donley 3 Majority Executive Director 4 Ritchie LaFaver 5 Deputy Executive Director 6 Ann Baloga 7 Minority Executive Director 8 Tara Trees 9 Minority Chief Counsel 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Key Reporters [email protected] 4 1 INDEX OF TESTIFIERS 2 TESTIFIERS 3 STATE-RELATED UNIVERSITIES 4 PSU, PITT, TEMPLE & LINCOLN 5 Dr. Eric Barron, President Pennsylvania State University 6 Dr. Patrick Gallagher, Chancellor 7 University of Pittsburgh 8 Dr. Richard Englert, President Temple University 9 Dr. Brenda Allen, President 10 Lincoln University 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS 21 PAGE LINE PAGE LINE PAGE LINE 22 17 10-15 20 11-15 22 1-2 23 27 5-10 31 22- 91 8-12 24 103 12-14 25 Key Reporters [email protected] 5 1 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: We'll call 2 the Appropriations Committee back in order. And 3 we'll ask all the Presidents of the universities if 4 they will rise and raise their right hand. 5 (Whereupon, the testifiers were sworn 6 en masse.) 7 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: Very good. 8 Thank you very much. 9 We'll start off with questions right 10 away. We're gonna start off with Representative 11 Culver. 12 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: Good 13 afternoon. I'm on this side of the room. Thank 14 you, Presidents and Chancellor for being here. 15 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 16 My question is specifically directed to 17 Penn State University, so President Barron. My 18 district is on the fringes of sort of the Penn 19 State home territory, about 45 minutes to an hour 20 away; pretty rural, agriculturally heavy area that 21 is dependent upon the extension services and the ag 22 services of the university. And many of our 23 students and farmers have attended Penn State in 24 the ag program. 25 So, in additional to the funding that Key Reporters [email protected] 6 1 you receive through the Department of Education, 2 Penn State also receives agricultural research and 3 extension funding through the Department of 4 Agriculture. 5 In the Governor's proposed budget, he's 6 keeping, or proposing, for level funding at 7 55 million a year, while the university has 8 requested about a 6 percent increase in that line 9 item. 10 Can you tell me what the impact will be 11 of level funding on the programs that are offered 12 in districts like mine? 13 DR. BARRON: Well, it's -- it's always 14 somewhat tricky with level funding and wanting to 15 provide raises for individuals that are not funded 16 off of tuition, which includes the extension agent. 17 So, usually level funding results in some 18 contraction that has to occur in order to balance 19 that budget. 20 But I think, more importantly, the 21 request is really rather specific. We have a 22 Spotted Lanternfly infestation. This is impacting 23 a large part of Pennsylvania. It's tens of 24 millions of dollars in potential damage. Penn 25 State stepped in early before any funding in order Key Reporters [email protected] 7 1 to be able to address the problem, and I think 2 we're on a pathway to solutions. 3 And then I think the second part of it 4 is, this is a state that spends -- has a lot of 5 concern over water-quality issues, especially 6 coupled with agriculture, and we can do very well 7 in that particular space. So what you see is that 8 request enables us to do more for the Commonwealth 9 in addition to what we're doing, as well as making 10 sure that we keep all those active extension agents 11 in every county in the State of Pennsylvania. 12 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: So, do 13 you think that by keeping it level funded, it will 14 hurt the efforts that had been done for the Spotted 15 Lanternfly and the other programs. 16 DR. BARRON: We always do the very best 17 we can. But in past cases with level funding, it's 18 resulted in some contraction in terms of what we're 19 able to do, and we would like to do more for the 20 state. And I think with the two issues that I just 21 described, doing more is important right now. 22 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: Do you 23 think that we'll see that in the bigger programs 24 that you're implementing statewide or more locally 25 at the extension services and the services they Key Reporters [email protected] 8 1 provide in our communities? 2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: I see them as 3 closely coupled, because frequently what we work on 4 crosses many, many different counties. So, this is 5 also a way in which you translate research into 6 local impact. And so, this is a case where it 7 affects both. 8 REPRESENTATIVE SCHLEGEL-CULVER: Okay. 9 Thank you very much. 10 Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 11 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN SAYLOR: I did want to 12 announce that we've been joined by three members 13 who are not members of the Appropriations 14 Committee: Representative Tom Mehaffie, 15 Representative Schroeder, and also our great 16 Speaker of the House, Mike Turzai. 17 So, with that, we'll move on to our next 18 question, is Representative Comitta. 19 REPRESENTATIVE COMMITA: Thank you, 20 Mr. Chairman. Welcome, Presidents. Hi, I'm over 21 here. 22 So, I just have to say right before you 23 all sat down, the excitement and the energies, you 24 know, seeing everybody, and everybody, you know, 25 connects, and your "yeah team" and so on. I just Key Reporters [email protected] 9 1 want to thank you, each of you, for your leadership 2 in -- at your universities. You are shaping the 3 future of our Commonwealth and every student who is 4 fortunate enough to be with you. So, I want to 5 thank you for that. 6 I have a question for President Barron. 7 With Penn State's Ag Extension around the 8 Commonwealth, I know that you are providing 9 agricultural research, extension programs that 10 support the agricultural community and really 11 stakeholders around Pennsylvania. 12 So, I have a question for you about how 13 your extension services are researching the effects 14 of climate change on farming, agriculture in 15 general, construction practices; for example, 16 pipelines. We had the -- In Beaver County, we had 17 the Revolution Pipeline that had been constructed; 18 was put into operation for one week with the 19 natural gas liquids. There was a lot of rain, 20 which we're getting all the time now; landslide; 21 pipeline exploded with -- to disasterous results. 22 So, how is the Penn State Ag Extension 23 program addressing changes that we need to make to 24 keep people and agriculture, and so on, safe and 25 healthy in Pennsylvania? Key Reporters [email protected] 10 1 DR. BARRON: So, Penn State is very 2 fortunate. Not only do we have a world class 3 agricultural extension program, and effort in 4 agricultural research, but we also have one of the 5 finest meterology departments in the country. And 6 borne out of that is considerable effort to focus 7 on prediction, and that level of prediction is 8 expanding. You can see it in a lot of different 9 forms. 10 Our system prediction has a category, 11 and the objective there is to look at whether 12 variability -- climate variability climate, and 13 consider not only predicting those characteristics 14 but their impact. So, you see everything from a 15 change in pest distribution that occurs, change in 16 extremes that has an impact on what you can grow, 17 or the viability of what it is you can grow, even 18 shifts of many growing zones.