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4th Senate, House Republican Budget Sent To Governor In The Face Of Veto Threat
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Senate and House Republicans, in overwhelmingly party-line votes, took final action to send House Bill 1801 (Irvin-R-Centre) containing $6.05 billion in supplemental appropriations for FY 2015-16 (Senate- 31 to 18, House- 128 to 63), the Fiscal Code bill-- House Bill 1327 (Peifer-R-Pike) (Senate- 30 to 19, House- 120 to 71) and the bills funding state-related universities to the Governor for his action.

Gov. Wolf said Wednesday afternoon he would veto the bills, but we don’t know at this point if that means the entire bills or whether he will use his line-item veto.

The bills were formally presented to the Governor for action on Thursday by the Senate and House.

House Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) said Friday without closing out the FY 2015-16 budget, negotiations cannot begin to talk about the FY 2016-17 budget.  He and other Republicans urged Gov. Wolf to sign the budget bills on his desk.

Regardless of the veto, Speaker Turzai did hint there might be enough Democratic votes in the House to override the veto.

“We were very appreciative that we picked up 13 of our Democratic colleagues’ votes, we think that many more of our Democratic colleagues—many of us who are good friends, very professional—understand the need to close the 15-16 budget,” Rep. Turzai said.

Reacting to the Speaker’s comments Friday afternoon, House Democratic Caucus spokesperson Bill Patton said the Speaker “is continuing to refuse to acknowledge reality.”

“Every step the governor has taken has been an action to close the deficit, not make it worse,” he said. “The people that are making the deficit worse are the House Republican leadership who would not let the House take a vote on a real budget."

House Bill 1327 (Peifer-R-Pike) amends the Fiscal Code to among other things, kill DEP Chapter 78 conventional drilling regulations and make DEP start over, reduce Growing Greener watershed restoration funding by $15 million this fiscal year and to slow consideration of any state plan to comply with the EPA Clean Power Climate Plan.

The bill would also transfer $12 million from the High Performance Green Buildings Program to the Natural Gas Infrastructure Development Fund administered by the Commonwealth Financing Authority.

House Republicans and some Democrats finally reached the required two-thirds vote and passed funding for the state-related universities-- Penn State, Pitt, Lincoln and the University of Pennsylvania in Senate Bills 912, 913, 914, 915 and 916-- and sent them to the Governor for his action.

Gov. Wolf threatened to veto these bills as well.

This entire package of bills put together by Senate and House Republicans represents a $30 billion FY 2015-16 General Fund budget restoring many, but not all, of the line-item vetoes Gov. Wolf made in the $30.2 billion Republican budget approved in December.

Republicans say the budget requires no additional tax revenue and increases funding for basic education and nonpreferred appropriations to state-related universities.

Gov. Wolf and Senate and House Democrats say the Republican budget is out-of-balance by at least $290 million, would create a year end deficit of more than $1.6 billion in 2016-17 and would force Pennsylvania “off the fiscal cliff.”

Specifically, Democrats say, it does nothing to fund state programs administered by counties.

Click Here for a copy of the line-by-line General Fund spreadsheet by House Republicans.

This is the fourth budget Republicans have sent to the Governor since June 30 of last year.   (Click Here for the timeline.)

The General Fund budget was vetoed entirely by the Governor last July.  A stopgap budget package in September was vetoed by the Governor in its entirety.  And finally, $6.8 billion of the General Fund budget passed in December was line-item vetoed by the Governor.

In between those budgets, the House failed in 14 attempts to override the Governor’s veto of the June 30 budget.

And now we have budget #4.

Governor’s Veto Threat

Gov. Wolf issued this statement just after the Senate vote on the Republican budget: “Despite repeated efforts by my administration to work with Republican leaders to find compromise, including over the last couple days, Republican leaders are once again insistent on passing another irresponsible and unbalanced budget that does not fund our schools or fix the deficit.

“This is further indication that the Republican leaders have no intention of working together with me to produce a final budget. This is the third time they have attempted to pass an unbalanced budget with no consultation with the administration. This is simply unproductive and a waste of taxpayer resources.

“The math in the latest version still does not work. Even using the Republicans’ questionable math and assumptions, the budget creates a $1.6 billion deficit that will prompt massive cuts to education, teacher layoffs, higher property taxes, and cuts to vital programs for seniors. This budget not only does nothing to address Pennsylvania’s challenges, but by continuing to kick the can down the road, it further exacerbates our problems,

“In its current form, I will veto this budget, and I urge Republicans in the legislature to stop the partisan games and come back to the table to negotiate a final budget that funds our schools and eliminates the nearly $2 billion deficit. I look forward to working with both parties in the legislature to finally end this impasse, fix our schools, and eliminate the deficit.”

In later comments, Gov. Wolf said specifically he will veto funding for state-related universities because there is no revenue to support it.

Senate Republican Comments

Senate Republican Leaders offered the following statements on the passage of the budget Wednesday--

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson):  “Today’s vote took an important step to close the 2015-16 budget impasse which has now entered its ninth month.  I am pleased that we are finally completing this budget year without raising taxes on Pennsylvania’s hardworking residents.  The supplemental budget passed by the Senate today will provide our schools, agriculture programs, critical access hospitals and many other worthwhile programs with the funding they need to keep their doors open.   Gov. Wolf’s desire to create a crisis by line item vetoing funding last December was completely inappropriate.  It is long past time to close the 2015-16 budget and move on to working to provide a timely and responsible budget for 2016-17.”

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Centre):  “We are in an emergency situation. Let’s stop looking at what this budget isn’t and focus on what it is. This budget is $200 million new dollars for education and keeps our schools from closing their doors. It restores the funding for our agricultural community and means Penn State won’t lay off 1,100 employees. Rural hospitals receive their funding as do regional cancer centers, poison control facilities and more. This plan gets our communities the money they desperately need without the tax increases the Governor so desperately wants.”

Senate Appropriations Committee Majority Chair Pat Browne (R-Lehigh):  “We cannot continue down the path we are on where schools are facing the real prospect of being forced to close and where vital nonprofits and social service organizations are unable to keep their doors open and operating. We have a fundamental and constitutional responsibility to provide funding to these critical state programs and services. This supplemental 2015-16 appropriations budget restores most of the Governor’s line-item veto cuts from December and provides increased funding for education, restores funding to correctional facilities and social service agencies and does so without raising taxes on our hard-working families and job creators.”

Senate Majority Whip John Gordner (R-Columbia):  “I am pleased the Senate has acted to restore funding to our schools, agricultural community, rural critical access hospitals and other vital programs.  This responsible budget reverses the punitive cuts inflicted by Governor Wolf through his line-item vetoes and at the same time increases public school funding by $200 million without raising a single tax.”

General Fund Bill Contents

House Bill 1801 (Irvin-R-Centre) includes $6.05 billion in supplementation appropriations for--

-- Dept. of Agriculture - $83.8 million

-- Dept. of Conservation & Natural Resources - $2.25 million Heritage Parks Program

-- Dept. of Environmental Protection - does NOT restore $900,000 for Sewage Facilities Grants

Click Here for a copy of the line-by-line General Fund spreadsheet by House Republicans.

NewsClips:

McNickle: Phone Call Telegraphs Wolf’s Real Intent On Shale Gas?

Swift: Worsening Budget Mess Awaiting Lawmakers

Editorial: Better Leaders Would End The Budget Impasse

Auditor General To Examine Act 13 Impact Fee Spending

PCN: PA Supreme Court Arguments On Act 13, Oil & Gas Lease Fund

AP: Catching Bigfoot: Wolf Pursues Election-Year Tax Increase

PLS: Speaker Turzai Implores Gov. Wolf To Sign Budget

Wolf Threatens Veto Of Republican Budget

Sen.Yudichak (D) Rips Wolf, Legislature Over Budget Impasse

Thompson: GOP Ponders Veto Override, With Growing Dem Support

Budget Impasse Concerns Penn State Extension Director

Penn State Extension, 4-H Programs Hang In Balance

Penn State’s Agricultural Extension Dollars Affect Your Table

Lancaster Penn State Extension Office Faces Closure

Related Stories:

2nd Senate Budget Hearing: DEP: 12 Special Funds Will Have Funding Shortfalls By 2018

PEC Opposes Killing Conventional Drilling Regs, Delaying Clean Power Plan

Growing Greener Coalition Calls For Boost In Funding For Environmental Agencies

Growing Greener Coalition Thanks House For Passing Heritage Areas Bill

Joint Conservation Committee: Heritage Areas Generate $2 Billion For PA’s Economy

Commonwealth Court Upholds Ability Of A Governor To Line-Item Veto Fiscal Code Bill


3/21/2016

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