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Associated Press
A Pennsylvania county sued to compel Gov. Tom Wolf to release $12.8 million in federal coronavirus relief funding that he withheld after county leaders defied his shutdown orders and sought to reopen on their own.
Wolf blocked funding for Lebanon County, where local Republican leaders voted in mid-May to lift pandemic restrictions in a direct challenge to the Democratic governor's authority. Wolf's decision to retaliate left Lebanon as the only eligible Pennsylvania county to be cut off from $625 million of federal coronavirus relief money distributed by the state.
The county's lawsuit, filed in Commonwealth Court, cast the Board of Commissioners' vote to unilaterally move Lebanon to the less restrictive "yellow" phase of Wolf's reopening plan as symbolic. The lawsuit said Wolf had no legal right to withhold funding appropriated by the Legislature, accusing him of "gross abuse of power" and acting like a "de facto King."
Wolf's office didn't comment on the lawsuit.
Wolf has repeatedly addressed his decision to withhold the funding, saying Lebanon County had to pay a price for its recalcitrance.