Wolf slams ‘garbage’ budget by GOP, announces partial veto

Governor Tom Wolf used a line item veto provision of the Constitution to resume some funding for schools and emergency services while still sending lawmakers back to the drawing board on a full budget.

In a move targeted to prevent schools from closing because of the protracted state budget impasse, Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday signed a $23.4 billion emergency funding budget.

“I am expressing the outrage that all of us should feel about the garbage the Republican legislative leaders have tried to dump on us”, Wolf said, quickly reading through a statement. Many agencies and non-profits have cut back on hours and services.

As Governor Wolf has warned for months, Pennsylvania is facing a massive structural budget deficit as a result of years of Republican budgets that were out of balance.

“I’m calling on lawmakers to get back to Harrisburg, back to the work they left unfinished last week”, he said. They simply left town before finishing their job.

“I get it that people are exhausted of this stalemate, but we were nearly there”, Wolf said.

Wolf said the fact that the new proposal was so drastically different from the compromised budget proposal was “doubly frustrating”.

“Apparently a $30.3 billion budget that increases education spending by over $400 million without sales or income tax increases is just not enough”, Reed said in a statement.

School districts, social service programs, county and municipal governments have been forced to furlough workers, curtail programs and borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to make ends meet during the budget standoff.

In his brief news conference, Wolf lit into the GOP-led legislature and its leadership.

It was unaccompanied by legislation directing the distribution of almost $6 billion in public school aid.

This governor-crafted version of a stopgap budget also provides for the Legislature, community colleges, the 14 State System of Higher Education universities and other higher education lines all to be funded at last year’s level. He said the schools will be getting the money they are owed from the past six months.

“The Governor just announced he will veto part of the budget passed by the House and Senate last week”. He can sign it or veto it, and he can also eliminate any of the individual spending items in it.

Senate Republican leaders pulled their support from the deal with Wolf and turned to the House GOP’s pared-down spending bill as Christmas closed in. “That compromise budget invested in our kids and our schools”, he said.