Harper Supports Veto Overrides to Fund Human Services, Textbooks for Nonpublic Schools

8/25/2015

HARRISBURG – As human service agencies struggle to continue their operations and nonpublic school students return to their classrooms without textbooks, Rep. Kate Harper (R-Montgomery) today voted to override the governor’s veto of several line items in the budget adopted by the Legislature back in June.
 
However, none of the override attempts garnered the necessary two-thirds supermajority vote to pass, because the Democratic members of the House voted against every override.
 
“We don’t have a full budget agreement, but there are plenty of things we do agree upon. What we were trying to do today was to get funding to the state programs and services that need it most, such as rape crisis centers, domestic violence services, grants to college students and textbooks to nonpublic schools. Unfortunately, those efforts failed on a party-line vote.”



Harper noted many of the line items taken up by the House on Tuesday were funded at the same level or greater than what Gov. Tom Wolf originally proposed in his budget in March.
 
“Funding these programs and services was the right thing to do, and they need funding sooner rather than later,” Harper said. “Even when a budget agreement is reached, it will take several weeks for the money to start flowing. However, if we had been able to fund these agreed-upon line items, we have the money to pay for them.”
 
Harper noted budget negotiations between the General Assembly and the governor are ongoing but an agreement remains elusive. The governor has proposed nearly $5 billion in new taxes, including a 20 percent income tax increase and 10 percent sales tax increase, as well as a significant expansion in the products and services subject to the tax.
 
The General Assembly passed a budget in June that included no new or increased taxes, but it was vetoed in its entirety by the governor.
 

Representative Kate Harper
61st District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact:  Rep. Harper’s Blue Bell Office
KateHarper.net / Facebook.com/RepKateHarper
kharper@pahousegop.com