HARRISBURG – State Senator Camera Bartolotta (R-46) released the following statement in response to Governor Tom Wolf’s executive order to block state funding for important projects in the name of his policy agenda:
“While I support workers receiving family-sustaining wages and benefits in safe workplaces, the Governor’s proposals are nothing more than costly, bureaucratic mandates that ignore the rising wages and workplace standards that we have been seeing for some time in a competitive jobs market.
“This policy is ironic coming from an Administration that has consistently thwarted economic growth through onerous regulations, permit delays and ill-conceived plans like entering the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) that would make energy less affordable and cost the state jobs. To suggest that their executive order, requiring Department of Community and Economic Development grantees to pay at least $13.50 per hour, will ‘give employers the edge they need to attract employees’ is ludicrous. In my experience, excessive government mandates limit job growth and economic development; they do not expand it.
“This ill-conceived policy will stop meaningful projects that could create numerous jobs that pay well in our communities from ever receiving state funding. The Governor’s executive order and call for legislative action merely seeks to push the policy agenda of his Administration and political allies at the expense of job creation and what’s best for the Commonwealth.”
CONTACT: Eric Kratz, 717-787-1463