CLEARFIELD- It has been nearly two months since the deadline for a state budget has come and gone with no resolution in sight, and governing bodies across the Commonwealth are fed up.
Governor Josh Shapiro and the General Assembly have said they are getting closer to a budget, but now the legislature has gone on break until after Labor Day, leaving the rest of the state in the lurch.
During Tuesday’s Clearfield County Commissioners meeting a resolution was passed by the commissioners demanding that the two entities come together and do whatever they have to do to pass a budget so that funding can be released to the state agencies that desperately need it.
Commissioner Dave Glass said that he was recently at the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania conference and a bipartisan resolution passed where they and each of the 67 counties would pass a resolution to be sent to the governor and General Assembly insisting a budget be passed.
Glass said it shouldn’t be normalized for the state to miss the deadline when municipalities and school boards are mandated to pass budgets by a certain deadline.
The state also has a mandated deadline of June 30, but regularly misses it and faces no consequences, save the ire of the taxpayers.
Recently the commissioners have had meetings with local agencies to discuss what they can cut back on in order to save money until funding from the state comes through.
“These are decisions we shouldn’t have to make because the state isn’t doing their job,” Glass stated. “The message from CCAP is clear, we aren’t telling you how to do it, we are just telling yo to do your job.”
Glass added that Commissioner John Sobel said recently, can you imagine what would happen if Clearfield County didn’t pass a budget, then at Christmas said, we’re going home. “We would stay here and hammer it out.”
Sobel added that it is a miserable situation for counties and municipalities, recalling that in 2009 it took the government 100 days to pass a budget, and in 2015 and 2016 it took nine months.
He recalled that Clearfield County instituted a hiring freeze and had to made decisions on who would and wouldn’t get paid, resulting in a lawsuit from one of their service providers.
Glass read the resolution passed by the commissioners. It stated that counties, school districts and municipalities depend on funding from the state budget and in the past 25 years the state government has missed the deadline to pass a budget at least a dozen times.
This costs the taxpayers additional money since many of these governing bodies have to take out loans to meet obligations, money that is partially paid back in taxes, but unless taxes are then raised, the interest must be absorbed by the governing body.
As a result, the lack of a budget and the resulting funding crises are detrimental to tax payers and all residents of Pennsylvania, and Clearfield County urges the governor and legislature to stay in Harrisburg and not adjourn until a budget is passed.
Glass said that CCAP also passed a resolution demanding that the state reimburse counties costs associated with taking out loans to supplement their budgets during the impasse.
Commissioner Tim Winters encourages residents to reach out to local state representatives regarding the impasse and also the governor’s office.
The commissioners noted that the county is currently able to function without taking out a loan due to prudent decisions in the past, but it is nearly impossible to create and pass local budgets without a state budget to work with.
Recently Clearfield Area School District has struggled with funding due to the budget impasse and has had to dip into reserve funds to continue to operate.
“Just get it done, that’s all we ask,” Glass concluded.
