Governor Corbett's Budget Secretary Charles Zogby provided his 2013-2014 Mid Year Budget Briefing earlier today.

The following (PDF) provides an overview of Zogby's presentation and highlights various factors influencing the Commonwealth's Budget for fiscal year 2014-2015.

Items of interest include a $437 million dollar reduction in administration spending over the last three years, and General Fund Revenues are $42.6 million above estimates.

Going forward, Governor Corbett has instructed State Agencies to maintain level funding from the previous year which equates to a 8% reduction when factoring in annual personnel cost increases. In addition, the Corbett administration has indicated that additional General Fund Revenues will not be utilized to offset reductions in available federal funds.

Challenges facing the General Assembly and the Administration include the growing cost of the Commonwealth's pension system, and managing welfare spending in light of health care inflation costs in conjunction with a reduction in the Federal Medicaid Multiplier percentage.

Zogby's presentation anticipates an $835 million dollar increase in General Fund revenues with a $1.7 billion dollar cost increase as a result of the aforementioned challenges.