By The Pa. AFL-CIO

– Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale and Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder share Governor Wolf’s frustration and anger towards the Republican leadership in the State House, who decided last week to leave town rather than finish their work on the long-overdue budget.

By using his authority to veto portions of the GOP’s out-of-balance budget – rather than vetoing it in its entirety – Wolf is ensuring that badly needed funding will begin to flow to schools and cash-strapped county agencies and non-profits while still demanding that the legislature return to session and pass a balanced budget that addresses the significant needs of the Commonwealth.

“The House GOP budget was incomplete, unbalanced, and severely short-changed our public schools, while adding to a ballooning structural deficit,” said President Bloomingdale. “It is unacceptable that the State House dismissed their members to return home rather than finishing their work on behalf of Pennsylvania’s 12.8 million residents.”

“In his press conference this morning, Governor Wolf stated that he was ‘expressing the outrage that all of us should feel about the garbage the Republican legislative leaders have tried to dump on us,’ and we should all be outraged” said Secretary-Treasurer Snyder. “The stubborn refusal of Turzai and others in the State House to compromise, even with members of their own party, is holding the Commonwealth hostage and it has to end.”

On behalf of the 800,000 working men and women who make up the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, we urge the legislature to get back to work on passing a fair and balanced budget that will move Pennsylvania forward.

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6709