LANCASTER, Pa. -- Governor Tom Wolf said he's "proud" of what he and his administration have accomplished in their first year of his first term of political office, even with the lack of a complete state budget nearly seven months overdue.
Wolf was touting his "Government That Works" slogan Wednesday in Lancaster, which he introduced in his inauguration address one year ago. Wolf, a businessman from York County, was elected as Pennsylvania's 47th governor in 2014, despite having no political experience. He visited a food bank at the Lancaster County Council of Churches where he, alongside the Department of Human Services, boasted the state's error rate for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is at an all-time low and below the national average.
The decreased error rate saved the state $35 million in erroneous payments, Wolf said Wednesday.
"This shows success in our work to combat hunger and food insecurity in our state, as well as in our push to create a government that works in Pennsylvania," the Governor added.
Speaking with FOX43, Governor Wolf mentioned the SNAP error reductions, along with increased medicaid and voter registration, and a decrease in the state's prison population as reasons to be optimistic and "proud" of his first year as Pennsylvania's highest official. However, he realizes without a complete state budget in place, the job thus far is incomplete.
"Obviously, I would've liked to convince my colleagues in the House and Senate to put $400 Million into education rather than the 350 (million dollars) we agreed to," Wolf said. "But I'm happy with what we've done."
Wolf insists House and Senate Republicans are still to blame for walking away from the table after he says all parties agreed to a $30.8 Billion budget plan in December. When the House Republicans walked away two days before Christmas, the Senate quickly changed course and voted for a GOP-sponsored $30.2 Billion plan. On December 29, Governor Wolf line-item vetoed the proposal, clearing approximately $24 Billion of the budget. The three sides have not finished negotiations.
"We're facing a 2016-17 budget deficit around $2 billion," Wolf said. "That's a problem. We're talking about cutting into the general fund and that means schools and human services.
"I think the biggest surprise for me is a cognitive dissonance among the people here," he continued. "They just dissonated (sic) it away and said we'll just ignore it. You can't ignore it."
Leaders in the state's General Assembly have not given up, despite the differences in Pennsylvania's divided government. Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman told FOX43 Wednesday that the Governor has reopened discussions to try and get a complete budget dead finalized.
"The Governor needs to take more of leadership role in that," Corman said. "His press secretary is saying they're done negotiating but that doesn't get us done."
Corman was non-committal when asked if negotiations would again include the reportedly agreed upon $30.8 Billion plan, although vehemently opposed any plan which didn't include public pension reform.
"Anytime you have a first term governor from outside the process you're going to have a learning curve," Corman said of Wolf, while adding the governor's "laser focus" on the budget has prohibited any significant legislation from being passed. "It's a year lost but he's got three more in his term and we'll see where he goes from here."
Governor Wolf is optimistic on his, and the state's, future. He says he wants to focus on creating more jobs in 2016, while staying true to his campaign slogans of "Government That Works", "School's That Teach", and "Jobs That Pay".
"The good life is going to be lived. It's going to be here (in Pennsylvania)," Wolf said. "I want to exploit the resources we have."