-
Tips for becoming a good boxer - November 6, 2020
-
7 expert tips for making your hens night a memorable one - November 6, 2020
-
5 reasons to host your Christmas party on a cruise boat - November 6, 2020
-
What to do when you’re charged with a crime - November 6, 2020
-
Should you get one or multiple dogs? Here’s all you need to know - November 3, 2020
-
A Guide: How to Build Your Very Own Magic Mirror - February 14, 2019
-
Our Top Inspirational Baseball Stars - November 24, 2018
-
Five Tech Tools That Will Help You Turn Your Blog into a Business - November 24, 2018
-
How to Indulge on Vacation without Expanding Your Waist - November 9, 2018
-
5 Strategies for Businesses to Appeal to Today’s Increasingly Mobile-Crazed Customers - November 9, 2018
House GOP takes turn to solve Pennsylvania budget stalemate
Majority Leader Dave Reed was not in attendance.
Advertisement
“It’s basically sitting around and saying to one another, like, look… what parliamentary maneuver can we do to put this back on track?” said Rep. John Taylor (R-Philadelphia). “We’ll be here awhile”.
If the budget does pass the House, can the governor sign it into law without a revenue package in place to support the new spending? “The Republicans in the House blew that up”.
Gov. Tom Wolf is blaming House Republican leaders for Pennsylvania state government’s almost record-long budget stalemate ahead of another battle over what kind of spending plan the GOP-controlled House of Representatives will support.
With billions in state aid held up, cash-strapped school districts are getting slapped with potentially crippling credit downgrades, social service agencies are laying off workers and state-subsidized pre-kindergarten programs are closing to hundreds of children in low-income families. Domestic violence shelters are filled to capacity and home care services for the elderly in many counties are unable to take new enrollees. He said the pension changes were needed to address costs that have been increasing for school districts and state government.
During a chaotic floor session Tuesday, House members suddenly abandoned that so-called stopgap proposal by a 100-99 vote, moving instead to consider the larger annual budget the Senate has already passed.
But House Republicans revolted. On Saturday, conservatives helped defeat pension legislation that Senate Republican leaders had tied to their support for the tax and spending package. House Republicans, who favor a stronger measure to privatize liquor and wine sales, say it can’t pass the chamber.
Smith applauded Wolf’s decision to veto the “stop-gap” budget, which she said represented a failure of the legislature to do its job.
Flying monkey No. 2: Wolf vetoed the Republican budget, prompting GOP leaders to wait almost a month before bringing out…
Others warned the bill was vulnerable to a court challenge, and noted that it did not provide any immediate budget relief to school boards or lower the two pension systems’ unfunded liabilities.
A state government with a heart, courage and a brain should be able to find a way to get such services funded on time, or at least well before the end of the calendar year.
Wolf said he would veto it. The spending plan is a 6 percent increase over last year’s $29 billion approved budget. Along with opposition from House Democrats and moderate Republicans, it went down, 149-52.
The fissure that opened over the weekend in the plan to end the Pennsylvania budget impasse seemed to deepen Monday, as House Republicans began to advance a partial-year spending plan that Gov. Tom Wolf promised to veto.
Advertisement
House Republican leaders had argued that a short-term spending plan was the best way to break the stalemate while negotiations continued.