Governor Wolf Continues To Work On Gaining Support For His Budget Plan

By Jim Melwert

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Nearly a month after the state budget deadline, Governor Tom Wolf continues his tour of Pennsylvania, working to drum up support for his budget plan. His latest stop on the tour is in Willow Grove.

Governor Wolf says he vetoed the GOP-budget nearly a month ago, in part because it continues a school-funding system, that relies, he says, too little on state funding, and too much on local or property taxes.

"The greater your needs the less you're going to get, and the irony is the more you're going to pay for it, the higher your tax rate is going to be. It's a bad system."

Wolf claims his plan would more evenly fund schools across the state, shifting the burden, he says, by reducing property by $3.8 billion statewide, while increasing the state sales tax.

"That $3.8 billion shifting from the local to the state level means an increase in state taxes to cover that, but net it's a zero change in taxes."

The State GOP released a statement criticizing the governor for, as they phrase it, heading back out on the campaign trail.