With hours to go until the new fiscal year begins, Gov. Tom Wolf (D) announced late Tuesday he'll veto the entire budget bill the Republican-led legislature passed earlier in the day.
"I am truly sorry that we are at this place," Wolf said. "I have worked hard over the last three months to work with Republicans to open lines of communications with them, I've reached out to forge agreements, I have offered concessions, I have kept an open mind. And in return the Republican leaders have simply said 'No.'"
Wolf called the budget a "mess" and said, "The math doesn't add up."
While the $30.2 billion budget which passed Tuesday included increases in funding for education, the amount falls well below what Wolf called for in his budget address earlier this year.
Wolf called for about $34 billion in spending. His budget included a severance tax on Marcellus shale drilling to help better fund schools.
He also called for additional increases to the income and sales taxes as well as property tax reductions.
The Republican budget included no new taxes or tax increases. Republicans also sent to the governor bills to privatize the state's liquor stores and reform the pension system.
"There's no point in vetoing a no-tax increase budget," says Rep. Seth Grove (R-York County). "He still hasn't come off his massive increases of taxes so I don't know where the middle ground is."
Gov. Wolf has called a meeting Wednesday with legislative leaders at 2 p.m. to discuss the budget.