On Tuesday, February 6, 2018,  Governor Wolf delivered his state budget address to the PA General Assembly. His proposal contained a 3.1% increase over last year. The $32.9 billion proposed budget is supportive of education, highlighted by an increase in basic subsidy and special education line items; an increased investment in both career and technical education and workforce development initiatives; and an increase in funding for early childhood programs. The proposal has no major cuts in education. In fact, most other education programs would receive either an increase in funding or would be level-funded. The budget proposal is devoid of any broad-based new taxes. However, seeking to bolster revenue, the governor called for the passage of a severance tax, in addition to maintaining the existing impact fee. Finally, despite the $989.8 million increase in education, public schools will still be facing significant cost increases in employee pensions and special education.