Pennsylvania colleges borrow as they await funds from state - Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Two Western Pennsylvania community colleges have tapped more than $10 million in bank lines of credit to meet payroll and ensure other classroom and campus operations will continue while waiting for state appropriations now half-a-year overdue. Officials at those institutions, Community College of Allegheny County and Butler County Community College, expressed optimism Tuesday that the matter will be resolved. They said they hope funds approved to date will arrive soon, even as Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican legislators Tuesday continued to trade jabs. In recent weeks, both colleges took extraordinary financial actions to ensure the spring semester’s start was not affected by a commonwealth budget still incomplete. As enacted, it includes no more for the state’s 14 community colleges than the $215.7 million they received in 2014-15. http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2016/01/06/Pennsylvania-colleges-borrow-as-they-await-funds-from-state/stories/201601060104