In July 2016, Governor Tom Wolf allowed the General Fund Appropriations Bill (Senate Bill 1073) to become law without his signature as he awaited the revenue package to pay for the spending plan. Items of significance to the Penn community in the General Fund Budget include $250,000 for the Penn Vet Working Dog Center; $3,253,000 from the Physician Practice Plan line in the Department of Human Services budget that provides funding for the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine; and $800,000 in funding for Agricultural Research in the Department of Agriculture budget for the School of Veterinary Medicine’s diagnostic lab at New Bolton Center to address disease outbreak preparedness.

The Governor also signed into law House Bill 2141, which appropriated $30,416,000 for the School of Veterinary Medicine for FY2017. The FY2017 appropriation represented a 2.5% increase over the $29,674,000 appropriated in FY2016 and the first time the appropriation has surpassed $30 million in over half a decade.

—Hugh Allen, Senior Director of Commonwealth Relations