HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the GOP-controlled Legislature are heading toward a legal clash over the emergency declaration he issued at the beginning of the pandemic. Lawmakers voted to end it, Wolf insisted he holds veto power and business owners are left in limbo. Voting largely along party lines, the Legislature late Tuesday declared an end to Wolf’s 3-month-old emergency declaration. Republicans asserted their resolution paves the way for businesses that have been shut down under Wolf’s pandemic restrictions to reopen. Wolf says it does no such thing. Their dispute quickly landed in court. Wolf said that if the declaration were to end, these protections, among others, would go away:
- Burdensome eligibility requirements for more than a million Unemployment Compensation claimants would immediately go back into effect
- A school meal eligibility waiver, which has allowed more than 300 meal sites to open for distribution of food to school-age children in need, would end
- Tele-health and other health care services provided by out-of-state providers for Pennsylvanians would end
- Utility assistance for thousands of families and individuals would end, leaving people without water or electricity
- Mortgage foreclosure and eviction moratoriums that offer protection to vulnerable Pennsylvanians at risk of losing their homes during the pandemic would end
Wolf also said that by ending the disaster declaration, the state could also lose federal, public and individual disaster assistance and any additional state funding sources available through the transfer of unused General Fund dollars. Republican lawmakers, however, say that isn’t true.