From the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center (http://www.pennbpc.org):
The state budget negotiations continue to drag on, and reports indicate that four of five parties involved in the talks (Gov. Wolf, Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, and House Democrats) have agreed in principle to a revenue plan.
The holdout? Extremist House Republicans led by Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny County) who irresponsibly refuse to agree to the plan because they cannot agree to recurring revenue sources that the state so desperately needs.
This is unacceptable.
There is broad, bipartisan consensus for other revenue mechanisms, like a tax on natural gas drillers, but Speaker Turzai is content to mortgage Pennsylvania’s future instead of holding drilling companies accountable for paying their fair share.
The House GOP counter-offer is a combination of expanded gambling, one-time liquor privatization revenue, and reckless borrowing from a number of funds.
With a bipartisan agreement on the table, the extremist House GOP leadership is willing to drive the state off a fiscal cliff in order to avoid their responsibilities as legislators to balance the budget and tend to the long-term fiscal health of the state.
Eventually, this kind of reckless budgeting will lead to cuts to education and critical services in communities across the state.
Tell Representative Turzai to stop playing political games with Pennsylvania’s state finances at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-speaker-turzai-dont-play-games-with-state-finances.
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