6/3/16
by News Department on 06/03/16Wolf talks budget to fight opioid use...
Gov. Tom Wolf told reporters Thursday, that his $34 million budget request to address Pennsylvania's opioid abuse crisis is "a start" as the state begins to understand the scope and need of a statewide epidemic.
If approved by the state legislature, Wolf said his request — along with approximately $16 million in Medicaid funding — would help fund the creation of 50 outpatient treatment centers across the state that could serve up to 11,000 people a year.
But he called the funding "a down payment" that only begins to address the scope of heroin addiction.
Wolf's call for heroin funding comes in the wake of a record budget standoff and months before many lawmakers face re-election this fall.
The GOP-controlled Legislature has only a few weeks left to pass a budget before the start of the 2016-17 fiscal year on July 1.
