DelCo Reps To Wolf: Release $3 Billion For Schools Now

By KYW's David Madden

(DREXEL HILL, PA) -- Continued wrangling over proper funding for schools across Pennsylvania has Republicans in the Legislature and the Democratic Governor blaming each other, and neither side apparently willing to budge.

Yesterday, a pair of Delaware County legislators presented a plan they say will break the impasse. House bill 1821, the creation of state rep James Santora, would release some 3 billion dollars in education funding being held up by a line item veto from Governor Tom Wolf.

Santora told reporters in a news conference outside the Upper Darby School District offices "Because the Governor chose to blue line, or use his line item veto, there is a budget in Pennsylvania. So, we're beyond that. We need to now go and restore those funds."

He says if that's not done, he says many school districts will be financially strapped and some may have to close down early. Local state senator Tom McGarrigle called on the Wolf Administration to "stop using state education funding as a negotiating tool" for a tax increase package, and suggested there might be something improper with the way he's doing it.

"We need the Auditor General to look into how the Governor has managed to spend so much money without being appropriated by the legislature," McGarrigle said. "An audit will reveal the winners and the losers of the Governor's gambit."