Wolf vetoes part of state budget

Gov. Tom Wolf, saying he was “exercising his constitutional right” to make line-item vetos, gave his thumbs down to parts of a $30.3 billion state budget that’s already grossly overdue during a press conference from the state Capitol Tuesday morning.

“I’m going to veto this ridiculous exercise in budget futility,” he said.

“In doing this, I am expressing the outrage that all of us Pennsylvanians should feel about the garbage the Republican legislative leaders have tried to dump on us. This budget is wrong for Pennsylvania and our legislators – the folks we elected to serve us – need to own up to this.”

But Wolf did allow for $23.4 billion in emergency funding for schools, he said. That should last about six months.

Wolf had harsh words for the Republican leadership, calling the budget an “exercise in stupidity.”

“I don’t want to hold the children of Pennsylvania hostage to get the job done,” said Wolf.

“There will be furloughs – all kinds of problems if we don’t get a real budget.”

Check back later for more on this developing story.