Gov. Tom Wolf today followed through on his promise to veto a Republican-crafted stopgap spending bill as Pennsylvania nears the end of its third month without a state budget. “I think the only thing standing between us and a real budget are Republican leaders”, Wolf said this morning during a regularly scheduled appearance on a Pittsburgh radio station.
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DePasquale said Tuesday that his office found that 17 school districts and two intermediate units have borrowed a total of about $346 million to make up for the stoppage in state payments.
“If the Republican budget became law, our deficit would balloon to $3 billion, and instead of restoring education funding, even further cuts would become necessary, and our credit rating would become junk status – that’s unacceptable”. They accused him of holding schools and social services hostage for leverage in budget talks.
House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, said he hoped the talks would yield “common ground” that could lead to a bipartisan budget deal.
“Once he does, I believe a budget can be worked out in fairly quick fashion”, Corman said during floor comments Tuesday evening.
Senate Republican leaders decried the veto, saying Mr. Wolf had refused schools and community organizations needed funding. Republicans want to privatize the sale of wine and liquor and revamp the state’s public pensions to reduce future costs.
Republican leaders have not agreed to a budget plan that includes any sort of tax increase. Republicans have criticized both proposals as not far-reaching enough. Later, he added that he is working toward a compromise with Republicans.
“Despite the political posturing and blatant obstruction by Republican leaders, I know there are rank and file Republican legislators who understand the importance of investing in education and there are rank and file Republican legislators who support a commonsense severance tax”.
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He went on to say that he “cannot concede to people who just want to blow things up” and characterized the stalemate as a contest over “whether we want to govern ourselves or not”.
