Adjust Text Size
For Immediate Release
August 19, 2009
Contact: Sally Kohr
(717) 787-4651

Senator Alloway Fights to Reinstate Funding for Homeless Shelters

HARRISBURG -- Seeking to keep vital government programs and services operating while budget negotiations continue, Senator Richard Alloway II (R-33) voted today to override a number of Governor Rendell's recent line-item vetoes of Senate Bill 850.

Alloway voted to reinstate funding for a number of core government services that have been left in limbo because of the budget impasse, including funding that would protect the Franklin County Homeless Shelter in Chambersburg. The shelter has recently held fundraisers just to keep its doors open.

Alloway made the motion on the Senate floor to fund the Homeless Assistance Program, which provides a wide range of services to more than 100,000 Pennsylvanians to support homeless families and prevent families from becoming homeless.

"We cannot afford to turn our backs on our area's most needy citizens," Alloway said. "The governor's decision to leave these individuals out in the cold is wrong and unnecessary, and it is shameful that a small minority of my colleagues in the Senate will allow a large number of Pennsylvanians to suffer due to partisan politics."

Despite unanimous Republican support, the veto overrides failed when the majority of Democrats voted against the measures – which require a two-thirds majority.  Had the overrides succeeded in both the Senate and House, funding would have begun flowing to programs that the governor cut. Alloway said that the governor is trying to create a crisis atmosphere by holding a number of programs and services hostage, including homeless assistance, veterans outreach services and domestic violence and rape crisis programs.

Among the line items which the Governor vetoed despite the fact that Senate Bill 850 funded them at exactly the amount he recommended:

• Homeless Assistance, $25.6 million
• Veterans' Educational Assistance, $7.0 million
• Veterans' Outreach Services, $1.7 million
• Veterans' Assistance, $428,000
• Disabled Veterans' Transportation, $350,000
• Rape Crisis and Domestic Violence Services, $19.6 million

Override votes also took place on several additional line items under which the lack of state funding is having an immediate and dramatic negative impact on Pennsylvania residents, including:

• PHEAA Grants to Students, $386.2 million
• Community Mental Retardation Programs, $158.4 million
• Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, $9.9 million

Alloway added that there is plenty of existing funding for the programs that Republicans tried to restore, but the governor chose not to fund these services.

"The money is available to fund these programs, and all parties in budget negotiations agree to the level of funding for a number of these programs," Alloway said. "I am appalled that the governor and Senate Democrats would rather play politics than work to protect some of Pennsylvania's most vulnerable citizens."

Alloway spoke on the Senate floor in favor of funding the Homeless Assistance Program. Audio and video of his comments are available online at senatoralloway.com.