Pennsylvania fi nally has a budget, but slashed programs leave few in the mood to celebrate.

LIKE MOST FARMERS around Berks County, Michael Braucher of Centre Township buys crop insurance each spring.

Harsh droughts such as one in 1999, or the rainfall that hurt the wheat harvest this year, are why Braucher buys insurance for the grain he grows.

However, one of the victims in this year's budget battle is the state's contribution to crop insurance, a move decried by many in the agricultural community.

But the state Department of Agriculture was far from the only agency that saw its budget slashed in the spending plan finalized Oct. 9 after a 101-day impasse.

Lawmakers delivered a budget that did not call for acrossthe-board tax increases. But to balance the budget, legislators sliced and diced a number of programs.

Gone is the $22 million pot of money school districts used to make technology upgrades. The Keystone Help program, which gave loans to low-income families for energy-effi cient furnaces, is gone too.

And so-called walking around money, a controversial practice that gave lawmakers discretionary dollars for special projects, has vanished.

"A lot of people took hits," said Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone, a Reading Democrat.

Here are some of the programs eliminated or scaled back.

Agriculture

Lawmakers eliminated $518,000 used to market Pennsylvania farm products. And the state contribution to crop insurance was scaled back from $1.1 million to $600,000.

Farmers pay the majority of their crop insurance bills, but state contributions ensure there is adequate coverage for disasters, said Mark O'Neill, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

The cut in this year's budget is an 80 percent decrease in funding for the insurance program since 2006, O'Neill said.

Some Berks County farmers, particularly in the dairy industry, will likely forgo insurance to help keep costs down, Braucher said. While it is only a small part of the state budget, the loss of funding will hurt, he said.

"Agriculture is the number one industry in Pennsylvania, and any money we make we put back into the farm," he said. "It is nearsighted not to insure the survival of farms."

Environment

Legislators cut $58.4 million from the Department of Environmental Protection's budget, a 27 percent decrease from last year. Only the Department of Community and Economic Development saw a bigger drop in funding.

Among the programs eliminated was $11 million that municipalities tapped for upgrading their sewage treatment plants.

And lawmakers scrapped Keystone Help, which gave low-cost loans for homeowners upgrading their furnace or hot water heater.

Former Berks County Commissioner Judith L. Schwank, president of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, said funding cuts could hamper DEP's ability to monitor environmental regulations and to monitor drilling for natural gas in western Pennsylvania.

Teresa Candori, a department spokeswoman, said DEP has shifted more staff into drilling oversight. However, the department does not know what the new state budget will do to overall staffi ng numbers, she said.

Education

Education appears to have done pretty well in the budget process. Berks school districts all received increases in basic education funding, and the Department of Education saw its budget grow slightly.

"Overall, local school districts were the big winners in this budget, when a lot of state agencies were taking large cuts," said Sen. David G. Argall, a Schuylkill County Republican who represents parts of Berks County.

But the benefits may not last long. Because federal stimulus money was used to pay for the increases, they will disappear in two years. At that point, districts could be looking at big funding cuts.

"I would encourage the school districts to proceed with caution," Argall said. "This isn't a good time to embark on a lot of new spending."

While the state is providing schools with more general funding, some programs were cut.

One of the biggest hits came with the elimination of one of Gov. Ed Rendell's pet projects, Classrooms for the Future, which provided funding for technology upgrades. Berks schools had received nearly $4 million through the program.

Rendell had proposed spending $22 million to keep the program going.

"We benefited very well from it," said Dr. Solomon Lausch, Schuylkill Valley superintendent.

Schuylkill Valley received nearly $300,000 for computer equipment and the salary of a technology coach.

Lausch said it's a shame the program has ended, but he understood the state needed to make cuts.

Robert Urzillo, Conrad Weiser superintendent, said his district has bought almost 450 laptop computers with Classrooms for the Future funds. The program made a big difference for the district, he said.

"We had hoped to buy more equipment," he said. "This really has supplemented our equipment and increased or technology."

Also cut was $1.7 million for teen pregnancy and parenthood programs and $21.5 million for safety, alternative education and anti-violence eff orts.

A line item that had provided $19.5 million to colleges and universities for things such as career training, technology enhancements, launching of new degree programs or feasibility studies was cut to $400,000.

Overall, funding to the State System of Higher Education, which includes Kutztown University, was cut by $21 million.