Wolf, GOP Leaders: 'Broad Framework' Of Budget Deal Now In Place

By Tony Romeo

HARRISBURG, Pa., (CBS) -- Governor Wolf and Republican legislative leaders Tuesday evening confirmed that they do have the framework of a deal to end Pennsylvania's budget stalemate that is more than four months old.

Word came Monday that a budget deal was in the works. Then Tuesday Senate majority leader Jake Corman, claiming that the Wolf administration had mischaracterized the level of new education funding the Republicans had agreed to, said there had been a "major setback." Just a few hours later, Corman and the House majority leader joined with Governor Wolf as he made this announcement.

"I am very, very pleased to say that we have a broad framework for a budget deal… and our hope is – and this ambitious – that we will actually have a budget finished by Thanksgiving."

The deal calls for property tax relief but it also calls for an increase in the sales tax. In most of the state it would go to 7-and-a-quarter percent. In Philadelphia, it would go to 9-and-a-quarter percent.