Lawmakers welcome budget truce
Whether Democrat or Republican, southwest Pennsylvania’s state legislators reacted with relief Wednesday after Gov. Tom Wolf said he would allow a $6.6 billion supplemental 2015-16 budget to become law, ending a nine-month long impasse.
“I am very, very relieved that he’s not going to continue to stand in the way of funding schools and human services,” said state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township.
Wolf’s decision to not sign the budget sent to his desk last week yet allow it to become law ends a frustrating stalemate that endangered schools and social services, and now allows state leaders to focus on the 2016-17 budget.
“We will not have (an impasse) again. We cannot have it again,” Bartolotta said. “We owe the people of Pennsylvania much, much more than that.”
State Rep. Rob Matzie, D-16, Ambridge, Beaver County, said there was a mix of relief, disappointment and excitement among his House colleagues when the governor announced his decision Wednesday afternoon.
With 13 Democrats voting with Republicans last week to send the budget to Wolf’s desk, Matzie said many from his party had run out of patience and were not guaranteed to support another Wolf veto.
“There was a real threat of an override regardless of what some people say,” said Matzie, who described Aliquippa School District officials speaking earlier Wednesday in Harrisburg about not having enough money to pay employees after May 1.
Asked if he would have supported a veto override, Matzie replied, “If push came to shove, I would not have stood and let Aliquippa School District close.”
Matzie said there was still some unpalatable parts of the budgets, such as the lack of any mechanism to help districts recoup the interest paid on loans they were forced to take out during the impasse. Those expenses, he said, are a “trickle-down tax increase” that will inevitably fall on the shoulders of local taxpayers.
State Sen. Pat Stefano, R-Bullskin Township, said in a statement that Wolf capitulated only when faced with “the near certain override vote that would have followed his previously threatened veto.”
Stefano also said he was relieved that schools and agricultural groups, such as 4-H, will remain open. In the last few weeks, agriculture and farming proponents lamented the impact the budget impasse would have on Penn State Extension programs and 4-H.
“It’s now time to focus on making sure this mess doesn’t happen in the upcoming budget,” Stefano said.
State Rep. Jaret Gibbons, D-10, Franklin Township, Beaver County, was one of those 13 Democrats to vote for the budget last week, saying “it was time to get it done.” When asked if he would have supported a veto override, Gibbons responded much like Matzie, saying, “I was not ready to allow those (schools) to shut down.”
With the current fiscal year budget done, Gibbons said he hopes negotiations for next year’s budget can “kickoff in a positive fashion” with serious solutions for the state’s projected $2 billion structural deficit.
“We have another difficult year ahead of us,” Gibbons said.
State Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-South Union Township, and state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson Township, were also among the Democrats who voted for last week’s budget.
“I’m happy to see that the governor did the right thing and let the 2015-16 budget become law,” Mahoney said. “Now, we can start focusing on the 2016-17 budget. Hopefully, we won’t run into the same problem we had this year.”
Snyder lauded the budget for increasing funding for education by $200 million without raising taxes as well as keeping social services and 4-H programs open. “I am glad the governor has decided not to veto this bill,” she said. “Now, we can close the books on the tumultuous current fiscal year and devote our full energies to completing — on time, hopefully — the 2016-17 state budget due June 30.”