Scott Wagner sent this out Tuesday


This morning, Governor Wolf gave his budget address to a joint session of the House and Senate.  Below is a press release I sent to the media in response, and I plan to write a similar op-ed for the York Daily Record.  Stay tuned for my Session Wrap-Up at the end of the week where I will share details of the Governor's budget proposal.

Sincerely,

Scott R. Wagner
Senator, 28th District, York County
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 9, 2016

Wagner Responds to Wolf’s 2016-2017 Budget Address

HARRISBURG – Senator Scott Wagner (R-York), in response to Governor Tom Wolf’s 2016-2017 budget address this morning, continues to stand up for taxpayers by demanding accountability for the money they already send to Harrisburg.

“‘How dare he?’ I ask,” stated Wagner.  “How dare he paint a doom and gloom picture for Pennsylvania taxpayers to cover up the fact that he wants more of their money to fund his tax and spend budget, which he didn’t even present during his address.  Not once did he actually offer specifics of his proposal for the 2016-2017 Fiscal Year budget.”

Wagner continued, “While he omitted the details in his speech, the reality is, Governor Wolf continues to demand more money from taxpayers without taking basic steps to control costs. Again, I ask, ‘How dare he?’”

“How dare the Governor ask for more hard-earned tax dollars from the people of Pennsylvania without doing anything to reform the pension system that is driving costs through the roof, without reforming our archaic liquor system, without implementing a real hiring and wage freeze on state workers, without asking for more concessions from state employees that enjoy pay and benefits unmatched in the private sector, without asking for concessions from the money managers that get paid hundreds of millions of dollars to manage the state pension funds, and without using savings from innovations and efficiencies to shrink the looming budget deficit?” 

“Even the Governor himself stated in his speech, ‘We are going to have to stop closing our eyes and hoping our problems go away.  We are going to have to face the facts.’  Then face the facts, Mr. Governor.  Stop using the taxpayers of Pennsylvania as your personal slush fund to funnel more money into systems that we know aren’t working efficiently or effectively.”

“If we can’t look our constituents in the eyes and tell them that we’re doing everything that we can to control costs, we can’t ask them to send us more of their hard-earned money,” said Wagner.

The Senator concluded, “If the Governor wants to talk about ways to reform government and create savings to reduce the deficit, I will be the first one at the table. However, until that time, he has no business asking working Pennsylvanians to send more money to Harrisburg.”

If you are interested in the details of the new budget proposal with a comparison to last year's budget proposal and the legislature's budget in regards to education, you can find it in this very detailed report:

https://pennbpc.org/BEF1073