Gov. Wolf Talks Budget Stalemate During Visit To Washington Co.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pennsylvania's budget stalemate is now more than a hundred days old, making it the longest stalemate in state history.
Gov. Tom Wolf was in Washington County Wednesday, defending his call for higher taxes.
The governor charges that Republicans are in denial and are trying to plug a $2 billion deficit with smoke and mirrors. He says he's willing to compromise, but Republicans refuse.
And Gov. Wolf acknowledges, schools and social services are starting to feel the pain.
At the Washington County Courthouse, Gov. Wolf was met by representatives of social service agencies who aren't getting their funding from the state.
"Is it better to have a short-term solution fix that feels good, even though in the long run you're not going to have any human services or have a grossly underfunded education system, or do we deal with this right now?" said Gov. Wolf.
But it's not just social service agencies. School districts are feeling the pain of the budget stalemate. At least 17 districts have borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars while they wait for state funding.
State money has also been withheld from foster care, pre-kindergarten programs, meals on wheels, domestic violence services, food banks, and behavior and mental illness programs.
State contractors aren't getting paid, and neither is Big Brothers, Big Sisters.
Gov. Wolf says if we don't fix it now with more taxes, it'll be a repeat of 2011.
Gov. Wolf said, "2011 we took about a billion dollars out of education. And you know what happened. Property taxes went through the roof and 20,000 educators lost their jobs."
He says he's offered compromises but has gotten none in return.
"I've conceded things like liquor. I've actually conceded things like pensions. I've taken a billion dollars out of my original March 3 proposals," he said.
But the governor claims Republican lawmakers won't budge and aren't offering any compromise. He says we're between a rock and a hard place.
"The rock is they don't want to negotiate. The hard place is we have a deficit that is not going away by just wishing it away," he said.
Gov. Wolf says he'd consider plans to expand gambling in the state, including online gambling. But he says that won't bring in anything close to what they need to close the deficit.
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