Wolf vetoes parts of budget, OKs school cash

Wolf said he will selectively veto items in the $30.3 billion budget passed by the legislature but will allow some emergency funding to be released for schools, social services and county services.

With regard to schools, the governor is withholding the last six months of basic education funding as he continues to criticize the budget sent to him last week as “garbage the Republican legislative leaders have tried to dump on us”.

Along with Illinois, Pennsylvania is the only US state still without a budget. They simply left town before finishing their job.

Wolf’s office said it did not expect a decision before Monday, and the governor has options. He accused Wolf of making special interests his top priority.

“Instead they propose to pay for school construction by issuing billions in debt”.

“I’m calling on lawmakers to get back to Harrisburg, back to the work they left unfinished last week”, he said.

School districts across the state have had to borrow at least $900 million in total in order to stay open. Wolf’s action Tuesday will keep schools funded only through Thursday.

In his brief news conference, Wolf lit into the GOP-led legislature and its leadership. His press secretary declined to say what Wolf would announce. He said it would leave a budget hole of about $500 million in the year that ends June 30 and an additional $2 billion in the next fiscal year. “We’re waiting to hear from him”.

Wolf called the Republican spending plan “wrong for Pennsylvania”.

It includes hundreds of millions less than what Wolf wanted for schools and social services.

Besides signing or vetoing it, Wolf has other options. He might let it grow to be law with out his signature.

“We’re now at a point where I don’t want to hold the children of Pennsylvania hostage for the inability of folks here in Harrisburg to get the job done”.

“We’ve been operating this year with a lot of unanswered questions”. But public schools will get a little something. Legislation to send an annual subsidy of almost $600 million to Penn State, Temple, Pitt, Lincoln and the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school also remains in the House, and will require a source of money to pay for it.

Today, Wolf “gutted” their budget. Wolf later claimed he had secured enough support from House Democrats and moderate Republicans to pass the spending and tax plan he supported.

But that proposal hit a wall in the House when the chamber overwhelmingly defeated the pension proposal.

Domestic violence agencies would get an increase under the House GOP’s budget bill, but human services aid is lacking, and victims of domestic violence often rely on it to put their lives back together, Dierkers said.