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Commonwealth Relations Report

On Friday, June 22, Governor Tom Wolf signed the General Fund Appropriations Bill (House Bill 2121) into law, approving a total state general fund budget for FY 2018-2019 at $32.7 billion with an increase in spending of $718.9 million. The Governor also signed House Bill 2246, approving the School of Veterinary Medicine non-preferred appropriation at $31,328,000—a three percent increase over the prior year and the largest appropriation for the school since 2009. Other items of interest to the Penn community in the final budget package include level funding for the Physician Practice Plan line in the Department of Human Services budget, which supports programs in the School of Dental Medicine and the Perelman School of Medicine. Funding distributed via the Commonwealth Universal Research and Education (CURE) fund with revenues from the Master Tobacco Settlement Agreement also continues. Penn receives $3-$7 million annually from CURE funding.

Jeffrey Cooper, Vice President of Government and Community Affairs, announces that Hugh O. Allen, Senior Director of Commonwealth Relations, left Penn on July 6, 2018, to become the Chief of Staff of the Pennsylvania Treasury. Mr. Allen led Penn’s advocacy activities involving state and local government since September 2011. Notably, he secured state appropriations for the School of Veterinary Medicine through several challenging fiscal and political crises, overcoming the proposed elimination of the funding in 2017. His colleagues say farewell with great affection.

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