UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s general support appropriation will remain level for the third consecutive year, as the Pennsylvania General Assembly approved the University’s nonpreferred appropriations bill on July 7 as part of the commonwealth’s 2022-23 budget. The $42.7 billion budget package, which has been signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf, also includes a 5% funding increase for Penn State Agricultural Research and Extension and $2.35 million in new funding for Invent Penn State.
“The funding we receive from the commonwealth plays a critical role in helping to keep a world-class Penn State education affordable for Pennsylvania students and families. This year there are positive elements like increased funding for the College of Agricultural Sciences that will benefit the vital research and extension work that impacts the state’s agriculture industry and rural communities, as well as new support for Invent Penn State that will enhance the work Penn State is already doing to spark economic development, revitalization and entrepreneurial activity all across Pennsylvania,” said Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi. “However, it is important to emphasize a broader context. Inflationary pressures, revenue losses from the pandemic, demographic shifts and other factors driving cost, coupled with successive years of flat funding, pose significant challenges for the University and will require us to look deeply at our budget and spending in the coming year.”
Penn State’s general support appropriation has not increased since a 2% rise for the 2019-20 fiscal year. This funding is applied entirely to Penn State’s education budget and enables the University to offer an in-state tuition rate that benefits approximately 45,000 Pennsylvania resident undergraduates each year.
“We are disappointed that the General Assembly chose not to increase Penn State’s general support appropriation, as the University had requested and Gov. Wolf had proposed,” said Zack Moore, Penn State vice president for Government and Community Relations. “Pennsylvania students and their families are the direct beneficiaries of this funding, saving them thousands of dollars each on the total cost of a degree. After freezes to the University’s funding each of the last two years, and in the midst of nearly unprecedented inflation and state budget surpluses, Penn State and its students — particularly lower- and middle-income students — count on state support to help meet rising costs and to help mitigate impacts on tuition.”
Still, the state budget held a few bright spots for Penn State. The $2.35 million in new line-item funding for the Invent Penn State initiative marks the first time that the seven-year-old economic development and entrepreneurship-focused program has been funded by the commonwealth. In addition, until this year’s 5% increase, Agricultural Research and Extension, which conducts research and provides science-backed information and programming that benefits the agriculture industry and citizens in all 67 Pennsylvania counties, had not received a funding increase since 2019.
Penn State’s 2022-23 state funding includes:
- $242.1 million for the University’s general support appropriation, representing level funding from 2021-22 and 2020-21. This funding, which currently equals about $5,400 per Pennsylvania student, is the lowest per-student appropriation of any public university in Pennsylvania and well below the national average. However, Penn State more than doubles the state’s per-student investment, saving each Pennsylvania resident undergraduate an average of $13,000 annually on tuition costs.
- $57.7 million for Penn State Agricultural Research and Extension, an increase of 5%, or $2.7 million, over 2021-22. Agricultural research and extension programs are not supplemented with tuition dollars, so funding increases are necessary to keep pace with inflation and to leverage matching federal and county funding. Increased state support is vital to Penn State’s efforts to support agricultural education, serve rural communities, and provide research-based solutions to address the challenges facing Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry.
- $26.7 million for Pennsylvania College of Technology, representing level funding from 2021-22 and 2020-21. Penn College is a special-mission affiliate of Penn State with a focus on applied technology education.
- $2.35 million in new funding for Invent Penn State. This funding will help the University to strengthen and grow the LaunchBox and Innovation Hub Network, expand established entrepreneurship training programs with additional staffing and support services, and increase access to the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program to support more businesses.
- Penn State Health and the College of Medicine received level funding to provide access to high-quality medical care through medical assistance funding, with a portion of the funds to support the preparation of medical students for careers in primary care and rural medicine. Additionally, state appropriations to enhance access to clinical care programs and resources increased by 6%.
With the University’s state funding set, Penn State’s operating budget and tuition and fees schedules for the 2022-23 fiscal year will be finalized and presented to the Board of Trustees.