Pennsylvania Governor-elect Tom Corbett last week appointed former state Secretary of Education Charles Zogby to serve as budget secretary.
Corbett, a Republican, will take office on Jan. 18.
Zogby will oversee Pennsylvania’s $28 billion budget, its $1.5 billion capital budget, and all state-level debt issuance. Democrat Edward Rendell, who will be termed out next month, estimates a $3.5 billion to $4 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Corbett will need to file his first-ever budget in the first week of March.
Zogby is currently senior vice president of education and policy at K12, a company that produces online curricula for kindergarten through 12th-grade classes.
He served as head of the state’s Department of Education under Republican Governors Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker, managing a $10 billion budget and more than 800 personnel, according to K12’s website. He was also director of policy under Ridge.
The state has $9 billion of outstanding general obligation debt.
Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s rate Pennsylvania AA-plus and AA, respectively. Moody’s Investors S ervice assigns its Aa1 rating to the state.
The announcement received praise from Republicans in the Senate.
“Charles Zogby has the experience and reputation to take on what will be a very demanding job, and I look forward to working with him in steering Pennsylvania through these trying economic times,” Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Jake Corman said in a statement.
