HARRISBURG — Senator Lisa Baker, R-20th, offered the following statement regarding Gov. Tom Wolf’s annual budget address:
“We heard the governor present a plan and a vision with many ideas that I believe Republicans can embrace. The idea of helping to fund and support workforce development and investment in our communities has a lot of support.
There is general agreement on his goals for education, health care, and infrastructure, but the manner in which he proposes to pay for them is certain to be the subject of further discussion.
I was pleased to see the Governor give recognition to Misericordia University’s Women With Children program as a model to support and replicate across Pennsylvania.
I think we heard some very positive comments and some ideas we will certainly continue to look at. As the new chair of the Judiciary Committee, the idea of Justice Reinvestment, what we do to help rein in the costs of our corrections budget, those will be things I will continue to look at.
I think we set a positive tone on striking that hopeful balance between taxpayers and how we fund important programs.
There will also be debate on the overall spending level. Having come off a succession of difficult state budgets that required filling sizable deficits, there is an understandable reluctance among legislators to increase spending too much. There is substantial interest in trading off new spending for cuts in existing spending where results are lacking or the needs have diminished.”
Contact:
Andrew M. Seder
aseder@pasen.gov
(570) 226-5960