Pa. Republican offers "gambling-fee" tax plan

HARRISBURG - A Republican state senator is offering a "gambling-free" alternative to Gov. Rendell's proposal that video poker be legalized and taxed to help students pay for tuition at community colleges and some state schools.

Sen. Jeffrey Piccola (R., Dauphin), chairman of the Senate Education Committee, announced a plan yesterday that would provide $140 million to help students attending any college. The money would go to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. Piccola would fund the program by eliminating the $75 million tax credit for film companies and cutting in half the amount of aid for some private schools and museums.

Among the "non-preferred" colleges that would get reduced funding under Piccola's plan are Drexel University, the University of Pennsylvania, Lincoln University, the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and University of the Arts.

Piccola said the issue was debated every year but was even more pressing this year as the state faced a multibillion budget deficit.

"Should we support private schools with a huge budget deficit?" Piccola asked. "We should start the discussion to see if these appropriations are appropriate."

Piccola's proposal also would put strict new limits on tuition increases at most colleges and universities that get state funding.

Rendell's and Piccola's plans would almost certainly face uphill battles in the legislature from anti-gambling forces and from lawmakers who oppose cuts to education funding and programs.

Don Francis, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania, said he was pleased Rendell and Piccola recognized the need for more college tuition assistance. But he said he thought the Rendell plan's focus on helping students attend a limited number of schools would hurt enrollment at independent schools and he said he was "not crazy" about Piccola's funding source.

Francis said the size of the cuts - which would total $23 million for Penn - would be significant for those institutions targeted.

"You would take money away from a set of universities who have been receiving funds for decades and offer specialized education to state students," he said.

Rendell is traveling the state this week to pitch his $500 million "Tuition Relief Act," which he says would help freshmen attending community colleges and 14 state-funded schools - including West Chester and Cheyney Universities - and the community colleges as early as this fall.

But it hinges on the legislature's legalizing video poker in hundreds of taverns and private clubs.

Piccola called Rendell's video-poker plan a "massive expansion of gambling," which he considered a regressive tax on the elderly and poor.

Rendell has defended his initiative as a way to take advantage of the $400 million underground video-poker industry that is untaxed and unregulated.