Gov. Wolf & GOP Leaders Continue To Battle Over Budget
PITTSBURGH (NewsRadio 1020 KDKA) - On Tuesday, Gov. Tom Wolf joined "The KDKA Morning News" with Larry Richert and John Shumway to talk about the state budget and how negations with Republican leadership are going.
The governor says that he is willing to negotiate, but that Republicans aren't willing to do the same.
"Seems like I've made concessions on everything and I've been compromising and reaching out trying to move and I've got nothing from the other side. So, it's sort of disingenuous for anybody on that side (Republicans) to say I'm not moving enough. You can't negotiation with yourself. There have to be two parties and I'm trying to recognize the fact that we have disagreements and I'm trying to move, but I'm not seeing anything from the other side," says Wolf.
On Wednesday, Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Dave Reed joined Larry and John to respond to Wolf's comments as well as his frustrations with the negotiations.
"I think part of the struggle thus far is the governor's definition of compromise has been, 'you guys compromise on what you brought to the table, and once we compromise on your ideas you have to agree to each and every one of my ideas as I originally proposed them,'" says Reed.
Gov. Wolf admits that while he is a successful business man, he doesn't have much experience in public service. Wolf says that while he was the boss in his business, he still has to play politics.
Reed thinks that Wolf is used to dictating and telling people what to do.
"As part of a democracy though, each of us represent different constituencies back home," says reed.
Reed adds that Wolf is coming from a, "my way or the highway," standpoint.
Wolf says he made, "huge successions, 80 percent of what was in the pension bill on what was sent to me, in an effort to get these negotiations moving."
Reed says that the 20 percent Wolf isn't negotiating on is, "the important part of the legislation."
Both Wolf and Reed say they are feeling the pressure from the citizens of Pennsylvania to get a budget passed as they quickly approach 50 days without one and both sides will continue to negotiate.
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