With support of an additional 24 Republicans as well as every Democrat, the alternative has already passed the Senate, according to the York Daily Record.
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The surprising move saw the Pa. House vote to revive the $30.8 billion budget “framework” agreed upon by Gov. Wolf and Senate Republicans. However, some disagreements remain and there are numerous pieces of major legislation in play.
“Change is hard, and clearly more so given this legislature, but we must continue our fight for historic education funding that will begin to restore the cuts from five years ago, and a budget that is balanced, paid for, and fixes our deficit”.
The state budget mess is getting messier and legislators are running out of patience, as the battle to get an agreement grows uglier by the day. House lawmakers briefed by the governor’s office said it revolved around an increase in the personal income tax, from 3.07 to 3.3 percent.
Rep. Kevin Schreiber, D-York City, said he was surprised the session was abruptly ended and believes it happened because the House GOP feared the compromise budget would pass. “We are not doing anything for yet another year to take the debt burden off our kids and grandkids”, Republican Representative John Fleming of Louisiana said Thursday. “That was demonstrated (Tuesday)”. Asked Tuesday if a deal was possible, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s spokesman Jeffrey Sheridan said: “This is all on the House Republicans at this point”.
State Rep. Stephen Bloom, R-Cumberland, said he’s going to do his best to stop that from occurring. “It’s appropriate that “Star Wars” debuted this week because this is like a science-fiction movie”. The previous record was December 23 set in 2003.
Domestic violence shelters are filled to capacity and home care services for the elderly in many counties are unable to take new enrollees. The measure passed 65 to 33 in the Senate on Friday, following a successful vote in the House earlier in the day. Wolf supports it as part of a wider budget package that has been hung up by House GOP opposition since the outlines of a bipartisan deal were announced six weeks ago.
House Republican leaders insisted Monday that with the defeat of the pension bill it was time to find another way to deliver money to schools and social service providers, some of whom found their state funding cut off after the last budget ended June 30.
“This is incredibly frustrating”, said Harkins, who left Harrisburg for Erie on Wednesday afternoon and does not expect to return before next week.
The parliamentary maneuvers also defeated the House GOP leadership’s effort to pass a short-term emergency spending plan that Wolf had threatened to veto. The legislation, which will finance the government through September 2016, goes to President Barack Obama, who plans to sign it.
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The main appropriations bill in a $30.8 billion spending package survived a series of procedural votes. Republicans get roughly $500 billion in tax spending that goes mainly to their corporate and business interests, while Democrats get around $200 billion focused on college tuition, clean energy and Obamacare.
