HARRISBURG (Feb. 7, 2017) After listening to Governor Wolf’s budget address today before a joint session of the General Assembly, first-term senator Wayne Langerholc, Jr. (R-Cambria) said he saw both bright spots and troubling signs.
Encouraged by the call for spending cuts and the governor’s abandonment of broad-based tax increases, Sen. Langerholc expressed disappointment with the budget’s lack of transformational changes, such as pension reform.
“In recent months, the governor had given many encouraging indications that he was moving toward the Legislature’s point of view, to limit spending, hold the line on taxes, tackle cost-drivers, and find innovative sources of revenue,” Langerholc said. “This budget is a responsible starting point that I will examine in great detail in my position on the Appropriations Committee.”
“I look forward to playing an active role in finding common ground, and examining whether moves such as departmental consolidation will create long-term savings without compromising services,” he added. “We must track the numbers and gauge the real-world consequences.”
Langerholc, as a father and a former Cambria County Assistant District Attorney, acknowledged that, “As a statement of our priorities as a Commonwealth, the governor’s focus on children, schools, and the scourge of heroin and opioid addiction is welcome.”
“I am eager to work with my fellow Appropriations Committee members and the citizens in my District to bring a fresh perspective and ask the hard questions about the operations of each department and the fiscal and human impact of cuts and consolidations,” Sen. Langerholc said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Budget hearings will be held from Feb. 21 through March 10, before the June 30 budget deadline.
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CONTACT: Diane McNaughton dmmcnaughton@pasen.gov
(717) 787-6725