Wayne, Pike Counties Watching as State Budget Impasse Drags On

Pennsylvania lawmakers blew past the state’s June 30 deadline to pass a budget, and as the impasse stretches into late August, local leaders in Northeast Pennsylvania are bracing for possible impacts.

“The Pennsylvania state budget has a legal deadline of end of June, early July,” said Liam Mayo, news editor of The River Reporter. “And given that it’s almost September now, that budget or that deadline has very clearly come and gone and Pennsylvania does not yet have a finalized budget.”

Without a budget, state payments to local agencies are on hold. “The budget is what authorizes the state to sort of spend the money that it has. And without a budget agreement in place, the state can’t send out any of that money,” Mayo explained.

The major sticking point is transit funding. “Both Republicans and Democrats want to increase the amount of funding that goes to public transit in Pennsylvania, but there’s sort of disagreements on where that funding could come from,” Mayo said. “Either way you cut it, that’s leaving a hole in the budget somewhere, and there’s still this disagreement on where that hole should be.”

So far, impacts in Wayne and Pike have been limited.

“In general, the people we talked to said that they either haven’t sort of felt these missed payments yet or they have enough money in reserve to weather a couple of missed payments or both,” Mayo reported.

Pike County Commissioner Matt Osterberg told The River Reporter there had been concern that the Carbon Monroe Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission could be unable to provide services, but opioid settlement funds have been used to bridge the gap. Still, Osterberg said, “This is basically politics and I think it’s a shame that political disagreements can cause such havoc on the local level. This is always disruptive to an entire community when they do this.”

Wallenpaupack Area School District Superintendent Keith Ganassi told The River Reporter the district “has not been negatively affected at this time,” noting that local property tax revenues will see the district through the delay.

Michelle Young, director of the Wayne County Family Center, told The River Reporter her agency has weathered past budget stalemates without shutting down. “Regardless, I’ll rest easier when the budget is passed and funding is released for all the schools and vital programs that need this money,” she added.

County officials are watching closely.

“Everybody is preparing to potentially make some changes in services or preparing to shift some money around to make sure that services are not disrupted,” Mayo said. “But as of right now, they’re still looking at, okay, we may need to do this in a couple of weeks — not we are needing to do this on a large scale at this moment in time.”

Wayne County Clerk Andrew Seder told The River Reporter department heads have been put on notice about the budget delay but have not yet been asked to cut services. “If the budget impasse goes on a couple more weeks, the county will have to talk about what steps it could take to weather the storm,” Seder said.

At the state level, Sen. Lisa Baker, who represents Wayne and Pike counties, defended the Senate Republican proposal to prioritize roadwork. In a recent statement, she said the plan “recognizes the need for mass transit funding, but not at the expense of the rest of the Commonwealth. The plan turns a necessary corner in the right direction by prioritizing equity in funding, ensuring small communities in rural areas also receive resources.”

Mayo said the uncertainty itself is weighing on local communities: “Even though people might not be feeling direct immediate impacts, just the idea that this is something people need to prepare for is something that’s weighing on people’s minds in a way that it wouldn’t necessarily need to if politicians at the state level could find more easy agreement.”

You can read Liam Mayo’s full reporting on the state budget impasse at riverreporter.com

Image: The Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex in Harrisburg. (Credit: PACapitol.com)