Governor vetoes entire GOP plan
Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, left, and Sen. Richard Alloway, R-Franklin, discuss pension legislation in the Rules Committee ahead of floor debate at the state Capitol in Harrisburg Tuesday.
Senators gather Tuesday to discuss pension legislation in the Rules Committee ahead of floor debate at the state Capitol in Harrisburg.
HARRISBURG – Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf Tuesday vetoed the Republican-crafted spending plan that the GOP’s huge majorities in the state Legislature sent to him just hours before the state government’s fiscal year ended.
The veto was Wolf’s first in his more than five months in office and the first of a full budget bill in Pennsylvania in more than four decades.
Republicans sent the $30.2 billion, no-new-taxes bill to Wolf after negotiations between the two stalled in recent weeks. But Wolf said the Republican document was so packed with gimmicks that it does not balance and the “math doesn’t work.”
The bill passed the Senate Tuesday and the House on Saturday without any Democratic lawmaker’s vote.
It passed amid a flurry of votes as Republicans pushed through an ambitious agenda Tuesday. That agenda included a bill to license private companies to take over the state-controlled wine and liquor system and a bill to squeeze savings from the large pension systems by ending the traditional pension benefit for future school employees and state workers.
Wolf would not say how he will act on the GOP’s pension and liquor legislation, which passed both chambers Tuesday. However, he has said he opposes both plans, and Democrats, who voted in blocs against both bills, expect Wolf to veto each one.
During four hours of debate Tuesday, Republicans defended their budget bill as a responsible alternative to the multibillion-dollar tax increase sought by Wolf to wipe out a gaping deficit and reverse deep cuts in education made under his Republican predecessor.
The GOP’s budget bill would not increase taxes and would authorize an additional $1.1 billion in spending, primarily for rising costs for public pensions and health care, as well as $200 million more for education.
Earlier Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, said that if Wolf vetoes the budget he will be ready to return to work on it Wednesday.
“I’ll be here tomorrow, if need be I’ll be here the next day and the day after that and the Fourth of July,” Corman said during floor debate. “Whatever it may be, we will be here rolling up our sleeves, ready to go and do our job for the people of Pennsylvania.”
Wolf has said the spending plan shortchanges public schools, lets the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry off the hook without a severance tax and adds to the state government’s deficit because it is packed with one-time stopgaps, including transfers from off-budget funds and payment delays.
Another Wolf priority, legislation to cut local school property taxes statewide, has been stalled in the Senate after passing the House.
The wine and liquor privatization plan, which passed the House 113-82 and the Senate 27-22, with Democrats opposed, would allow about 14,000 beer-sales license holders — retailers, restaurants, grocery stores and others — to pay a higher fee for permission to also sell wine, liquor or both.
It would also provide a pathway to the closure of the approximately 600 state-controlled wine and liquor stores and, Republicans said, add convenience and modernization to an archaic system.
Democrats countered that the plan would irresponsibly liquidate a valuable state money maker for virtually nothing.
During debate on the pension bill, Republican backers said the current system is not sustainable for taxpayers. The bill’s major feature would direct most new hires into a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan, while using other changes, such as a cash balance plan, to save about $11 billion in payments over more than 30 years on a pension debt currently estimated at $53 billion. Lawmakers also would go into the 401(k)-style plan after their next election.
It passed the Senate 29-20 on Tuesday night, a few hours after it passed the House, 106-89.
Republicans said the plan would set the state on a more fiscally responsible path, but Democrats slammed the proposal as taking away retirement security for future state government and public school employees and risking a court challenge.