Charge: PA is shorting senior programs

By DAVID HULSE

MILFORD, PA — State government is letting down seniors with budget allocations that do not cover rising program costs in growing counties, officials say.

Lana Romeo, a program manager at the Blooming Grove senior center, last week told the county commissioners that despite the county’s booming growth, Pike’s Area Agency on Aging (AAA) has not received a state budget increase in three years.

Romeo listed more than 20 health and dietary services, recreational and educational programs operated by the AAA for seniors, noting that many of them would not be possible at current funding levels without the help of volunteers. “There is just no more funding. We’re begging for donations of extra arts and crafts materials,” she said.

Further, she said the funding problems come just as the county’s centers are starting to deal with baby-boomers who are, by and large, more sophisticated in their activities and have longer life expectancies.

Commissioner Richard Caridi said Pike’s growth has included large growth in the senior sector and the more they come, the more they access county services.

Commissioner Karl Wagner said the funding shortfall comes because demographic models used by the state to allocate funding to the counties have not been updated, so counties like Lackawanna and Lucerne which are losing seniors are not losing funding. “If we get that changed, it will make a big difference,” Wagner said.

State lottery fund distributions support senior programs, but Romeo said only .2 percent of that money goes to senior community centers, Romeo said.

A statement from the PA Association of Area Agencies on Aging calls for a one-time, $50 million lottery allocation to stabilize programs and assures an annual cost-of-living increase.

Romeo was on hand at the commissioners May 5 meeting to receive a proclamation naming May 9 to 15 as “Senior Community Center Week.”