Governor Tom Wolf decided to take action yesterday on the latest $30.3 billion GOP plan for Pennsylvania’s state budget, by vetoing portions of it but releasing funds for schools and social services, as well as county governments which have been stuck in an unprecedented six-month stalemate.

This is the first time the Governor has used his line-item veto authority, releasing $23.4 billion but rejecting items such as the proposed increase in the Legislature’s appropriations.

“In doing this, I’m expressing the outrage that all of us should feel about the garbage the Republican legislative leaders have tried to dump on us,” Wolf said of his veto at a Capitol news conference. “This budget is wrong for Pennsylvania. And our legislators, the folks we elected to serve us, need to own up to this. They need to do their jobs.”

State and local officials welcomed the decision, expressing their approval at seeing school and agencies from social services receiving the much needed funds. Republican legislators, however, were not as satisfied with the decision.

“It’s the same money that was back in June when he vetoed the whole budget,” commented Republican State Representative, Tom Quigley. “If he had exercised the line item veto, they would have had money for the last six months. I wonder what the governor was thinking back then, to put these groups through all this, when the dispute was on education funding.”

“Ignoring that property taxes are an issue he campaigned upon, Wolf issued yet another veto to the citizens of Pennsylvania today, calling on them to ‘pressure’ lawmakers into voting for his massive income and sales tax hikes,” remarked Republican State Representative, David Maloney, in a statement. “In May, the House approved a comprehensive tax relief package by a strong bipartisan vote, yet Wolf hasn’t even lifted a finger to act to save people from losing their homes.”

Democratic state Senator Andy Dinniman commented that while he did agree that school districts and social service agencies should not have been held hostage, the move was necessary to achieve a better ability to negotiate.

“It turns out that what the last two weeks showed us is it didn’t work,” pointed out Dinniman. “We did accomplish a key objective, which was to get money to schools and social service agencies, so we are no longer hurting them at the same time.”