Wolf Claims He Will Inherit $2 Billion Budget Deficit
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Charles Zogby, Gov. Tom Corbett's budget secretary, acknowledged on Wednesday a shortfall in revenues and unexpected expenses in the current budget, shortfalls that the Corbett administration says require additional adjustments.
A few hours later, Governor-elect Tom Wolf said the problem is worse than that.
At a press conference in York, Wolf said he'll inherit a mess when he's sworn in on Jan. 20.
"I am inheriting a problem, a big problem," he said.
That problem includes a projected $2 billion budget deficit.
"This is unacceptable. It's not unacceptable simply because it doesn't work mathematically. The commonwealth of Pennsylvania deserves a lot better than this," said Wolf.
Wolf said the Corbett administration used one-time revenue gimmicks to raise $1.6 billion dollars this year and borrowed another $1.5 billion, maxing out the government's line of credit.
So now it spends more money than it takes in.
"There's a projected negative cash flow," noted the governor-elect. "If I in my business background took this cash balance chart to my banker, they'd say, 'You don't have a business plan. You really can't get a loan. This is not working.' And yet that is what we have here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
Wolf -- the first businessman elected governor in 40 years – disputes Corbett's claim that he inherited a $4 billion deficit in 2010, saying Corbett got a $1 billion cash reserve when he took office, far more than the $1 million cash reserve Corbett is leaving Wolf.
"That $4 billion number? That's baloney," said Wolf. "We had a billion dollars in cash reserves as of the end of the 2010-2011 fiscal year. The projection today is about a million dollars, if we're lucky by June 30."
As for solutions, Wolf says his team is now getting a handle on what happened, but that all options will be on the table when he becomes governor in six weeks.
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