State Rep. Doyle Heffley isn't pleased with the governor's decision to give funding to Democratic lawmakers while social services agencies across the state are starving for funding in the midst of the state's budget stalemate.

Heffley held a town-hall meeting Thursday night to update constituents on the state Legislature's ongoing budget fight. It has been more than two months since the deadline to approve a budget has passed.In the meantime, crucial state funding has not gone out to social services agencies across the state. They have been forced to borrow money or cut programs as they wait on their state funding.At Thursday's meeting, Heffley reiterated for a handful of residents how he and his fellow Republican legislators will not approve Gov. Tom Wolf's budget. The main reason, Heffley says, is that it would raise taxes on Pennsylvanians by more than $12 billion over the next two years, about $1,300 per household.But he was particularly concerned with the governor's recent decision to give the state Democratic caucus $1.5 million to cover payroll, while refusing to pass any sort of stopgap budget. He said that Wolf circumvented the state's constitution by appropriating the money without the Legislature's approval."It really sets a terrible precedent, helping out his buddies in Harrisburg instead of the people of Pennsylvania," he said.Heffley says that there is agreement on much of the budget, but it is being held up because of disagreement on Wolf's tax plan. He favors rolling out funding to the programs that both sides can agree on, then focusing on the differences.Wolf's tax plan, which would shift property taxes to a mix of income and sales taxes, would benefit the Philadelphia area, according to Heffley, but not taxpayers in Carbon County. They would actually see more in new taxes than they would in relief, he said.He said that he wasn't optimistic that the state would have a budget in the next couple months, because there does not seem to be any interest in a compromise from Wolf's administration."At what point do you say, the government has to do better with what (money) it has to succeed?" he said.