Wolf willing to explore sales, income tax hike alternatives

HARRISBURG, Pa. >> It’s nearly time to get serious at the Pennsylvania Capitol.

A political action committee, tied to the Democratic Governors Association, launched a media ad criticizing Republicans for not supporting Wolf’s higher gas tax and fee plan to give more money to schools.

But Wolf vetoed the Republicans’ budget bill, saying it felt short of his priorities and used unacceptable stopgaps.

Amid growing anxiety among nonprofits and county agencies over a potentially lengthy disruption of money that supports the state’s social-services safety net, there’s no indication of a restart of budget talks or that positions are softening.

Both sides have dug in on what Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre) has said could become a lingering impasse.

Friday’s event was occasionally punctuated by shouts from the Wolf supporters, who chanted “no more Corbett budgets” as the event closed.

“Pennsylvanians voted for divided government”.

“I think it needs to be made very clear that this is going to be awhile as long as the governor holds on to the need for broad-based tax increases”, Corman said as he left his early afternoon meeting. “I can’t predict how long it’s going to take”.

“We thank Governor Wolf for standing up for the working families of Pennsylvania by vetoing legislation that doesn’t solve the problem but makes the problem even worse by increasing the pension debt by as much as $31 billion in additional costs over the next 30 years”.

As part of the Gov’s “Schools that Teach” tour (you’ll remember that is one of his budget’s three pillars), Wolf visited Downingtown School District.

We need our state lawmakers to support a budget that will provide the $410 million increase in basic education funding for K-12 schools that Wolf proposed. “Tom Wolf already spent the first two months of summer forming shady political groups to conduct his dirty work, but apparently he also needs the taxpayer-funded Office of the Governor to amplify his campaign rhetoric”.

The group also sponsored direct mailings targeting Republican lawmakers and aired a radio ad in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in which Wolf chided the GOP for passing a “fantasyland” budget and allowing Pennsylvania to remain the only major gas-producing state that does not charge the industry a severance tax.