Gov. Tom Wolf appears to be in no mood to break the 11-week-old budget impasse by signing onto a short-term spending plan that the Legislature’s big Republican majorities are preparing to advance.
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“Never in my life – and I’ve been in negotiations all my adult life – I have never been in negotiations like this”, Wolf said. “This stopgap is a poke in the eye, and I’m treating it as such, and I’m going to veto it”, he told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre) said Wednesday he believed a stopgap budget was the best option to quickly release money for schools and providers of social services ranging from drug-addiction treatment to domestic-violence shelters.
The split between Wolf and Republicans is over how much to spend and whether to raise taxes.
Asked if he would sign the Republicans’ short-term spending plan, he said he did not know what is in it and would have to see what the details first.
“Clearly, we’re going to be at least a couple of weeks, if not more, finalizing any agreement we could get to, and we don’t think they should be held hostage in the meantime”, Corman said.
Wolf’s press secretary, Jeff Sheridan, responded Tuesday that the governor has consistently said he would support a short-term spending plan only if there is agreement on a budget.
Justice Works is a member organization of the PCCYFS, which filed the lawsuit with the Commonwealth Court, asking that the Wolf Administration pay social service agencies the money they are owed.
The Senate’s Wednesday session was scheduled to include a procedural committee vote on the spending package.
Lawmakers have hardly been in session since July 1.
Still, Wolf continued to insist on a multibillion-dollar tax increase, in part to wipe out Republican-passed funding cuts in previous years and to resolve a long-term budget deficit.
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The Wolf administration says it legally can not reimburse foster care costs without an approved budget because it is a county-run program and the state government doesn’t directly provide the services. The Wolf administration is pledging to guarantee bank loans for any school district that needs it to make payroll.
