Wolf urged to rethink refusal to negotiate new Pa. budget deal

    A senior Pennsylvania Senate Republican is suggesting that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf will need to be willing to negotiate changes to a bipartisan budget agreement struck last fall.

    Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman said Tuesday that “taking our marbles and going home” won’t resolve a 7-month-old budget fight.

    Tuesday’s Senate voting session was the first of 2016, and Wolf is three weeks from delivering his budget proposal to lawmakers for the fiscal year that begins next July 1.

    For the current fiscal year, Wolf authorized about $23 billion from a House Republican bill he opposed. However, Wolf vetoed billions for public schools to keep pressure on the Republican-controlled House to pass the bipartisan deal.

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    That deal included a $1 billion-plus tax increase to deliver a record boost in school aid and to fix a long-term deficit.

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