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About Alex

Alex has covered Pennsylvania government since the summer of 2007, when he worked as an intern for the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents' Association. He moved from there to a reporter position at The Carlisle Sentinel, where he covered state and county government in addition to local politics. In May of 2008, he became the Harrisburg correspondent for PolitickerPA.com, a startup Web site from the New York Observer Media Group dedicated to covering the Pennsylvania political scene. He has been with PLS since March 2009.

Capitol View

Boscola: Others Ds Support Overrides, But Won't Vote for Them

August 19th, 2009
by Alex Roarty

Senator Lisa Boscola (D-Lehigh) said she isn’t the only Democrat who thinks some of Governor Ed Rendell’s line-item vetoes should be overridden.

She’s just the only one to vote to do so.

“To think everyone is lock, stock and barrel on this just isn’t true,” she told PLS during a brief interview on the Senate Floor after the first override vote.

Other Democratic senators won’t publicly break from leadership, she said, because it could complicate their efforts with issues like the sales tax or helping relieve Philadelphia’s budget crisis.

Each move to override the governor’s veto is failing on a 30-19 vote - three members short of the two-thirds support necessary. Republicans have unanimously supported each vote, while all Democrats, except for Senator Boscola, are opposing it.

Senator Boscola said she didn’t expect Democrats to break ranks on any of the other votes – and they haven’t thus far as the debate continues into Wednesday evening. She predicted several months would have to pass before any of them did.

Why did she support the override? Social services are hurting, she said, while state government continues to “play games.”

“So I’m going to look beyond the game,” Senator Boscola said during a speech on the Senate Floor, vowing that she would no longer play politics with any future budget vote.

Democrats have opposed the overrides because they don’t think the funding is enough in the long run, even if it would provide temporary relief.

“When someone is drowning, you don’t tell them to hang on until you can find a bigger life-preserver,” she said.