Pa. GOP says it’s pension reform or a late budget

The Pennsylvania Senate’s Republican leader says the commonwealth budget might be quite late this year.

 

For months, GOP Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman has said a public pension overhaul will have to be priority number one for the Legislature this year.

He was recently asked if it means lawmakers might blow their June 30-th deadline for passing a state budget.

Corman says, well, yeah.

“It is the budget and you know we’re not doing a budget without it. We can’t,” he said.

Corman says his caucus expects to unveil a plan that would yield short-term and long-term savings for the state’s deeply indebted public pension systems.

Governor Tom Wolf does not support such changes.

The Republican-led Legislature failed to pass similar proposals when Tom Corbett was governor, even though he supported them.

Gov. Wolf wants to borrow $3 billion dollars, invest it and use the proceeds to refill the underfunded pension accounts.