The stalemate began in June when Wolf vetoed a budget passed by the Republican majority in the House and Senate. 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.
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Wolf insists he offered “historic” compromise proposals on both pension benefits and the wine and liquor store system earlier this month.
“If the October first payments aren’t made to school districts, the total amount borrowed by the school districts that are impacted will be almost a half a billion dollars projected”, DePasquale said. DePasquale also notes that many districts are losing investment income because they are spending down their reserves.
$275 million of the borrowing was by Philadelphia schools.
Wolf had warned Republicans for much of September that he would veto their short-term spending measure unless they had reached a broader agreement with him on a spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1.
“It’s shameful to watch Governor Tom Wolf single-handedly withhold funding for our schools and social services so he can try and force tax increases”, Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason said.
Tom Wolf vetoed a Republican-led stopgap budget on Tuesday that would have funded parts of the state government for four months, saying that the proposal “sells out the people of Pennsylvania to oil and gas companies and Harrisburg special interests”.
Wolf spoke Tuesday during a regularly scheduled appearance on Pittsburgh radio station KDKA-AM. “There are many Republican members who don’t want to have Washington be imported into Harrisburg”.
Constituents responded to questions about Pennsylvania’s business climate, including employment and sales figures; state issues, including the budget impasse, education, liquor privatization and tax incentives; and the 2016 presidential race, for which answers closely replicated current national polls.
Corman did not, however, say which tax increase Republicans might ultimately support to placate Wolf, and Republican leaders have not publicly committed to any sort of tax increase.
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With state aid stalled, schools, counties and nonprofit social services organizations are trying to scrape by.
