Wolf: No solution in sight
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf talks about the budget impasse Wednesday at Washington County Courthouse.
Deborah Holden of Washington talks to Governor Tom Wolf about the budgetary item on centers for independent living urging him to continue services for those with disabilities. Governor Wolf stopped by Washington County Courthouse for a news conference on the budget impasse Wednesday.
Gov. Tom Wolf said there needs to be recurring revenue in any budget proposal sent to him, and if no budget is passed by the end of the year, a $2-billion-plus state deficit will have schools raising property taxes and human services cutting programs.
Since the “real pain” began in July, schools have had to borrow cash and counties have been whittling away at service programs. The state House shut down Wolf’s latest proposed $2.4 billion tax package last week.
Speaking Wednesday at the Washington County Courthouse in a bid to build support for his budget plan, Wolf said “any serious, legitimate” proposal would include items like an increased personal income tax or an expanded sales tax. Other proposals – like a severance tax on natural gas drilling, or the recently popular bid to start online gambling – could be part of a package, but not the basis for a deficit-reducing budget. He didn’t offer any programs he would seek to cut.
“The gambling proposals, none of them add up to significant cash that could plug this budget hole on its own, somewhere around $200 million to $300 million,” Wolf said.
Wolf said he’s been as “resolute” as his Republican critics in the state Legislature, but he’s willing to compromise on items like liquor privatization and pension reform.
“We can’t keep kicking the can down the road,” he said referring to what the state had been interpreting as a $274 million surplus in 2014 that he attributed to fuzzy math.
“The end game is they need to realize this is constitutionally required … we can’t just look for a fix in the short-term. I’m looking to the long-term solution,” Wolf said. Any stopgap measure, similar to the Republican budget plan that contained $400 million in education funding he vetoed in July, Wolf said, would be tabled. Education, however, is one of Wolf’s priorities, and the veto reportedly puzzled both Democrats and Republicans.
“A proposal last week that I worked on with Republicans had personal income tax, it had severance tax, and property tax relief,” he said. “Any additional revenue would be used for education.”
Wolf said he also wants to cut $150 million annually from the budget by “increasing efficiency and cutting out waste” in government, but Wolf laments that’s still not enough. And, he warned the state could face another credit downgrade, which would increase the interest rate the state pays on borrowed funds.
“We’re almost to 1 percent … if we get downgraded again, we’ll be paying hundreds of thousands more in interest,” he said.
At the end of the brief talk, Wolf sounded frustrated that no progress would likely be made.
“I don’t know how you measure progress with what’s going on right now. You tell me how you do negotiations with the attitude in Harrisburg right now?”