PA freezes payments to counties

More service cuts ahead

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA — Wayne and Pike County commissioners received a notice from their professional association about mid-year budget cuts from the state.

Department of Public Welfare (DPW) acting secretary Harriet Dichter called the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP) to say that the $170 million in budgetary freezes of state funds, announced by Governor Edward Rendell in December, are being implemented now.

The budgets of Wayne and Pike counties were approved in December with the warning from the commissioners in each county that a state freeze of funds might come. “Well, it’s here,” said Wayne County Commissioner Tony Herzog.

The DPW share will be $54 million and will be administered as follows: a one percent cut for the Department of Mental Health, a one percent cut for the Department of Community Mental Retardation, a one percent cut for the Children and Youth Department, a 13 percent cut from the Human Services Development Fund and $4 million from Homeless Assistance.

CCAP said it did not have any details on freezes for any other departments or agencies, but would provide updates to the counties as soon as it hears. “We are waiting for word about our senior citizens programs and about behavior programs, like drug and alcohol, which haven’t been targeted as yet,” said CCAP executive director Doug Hill.

“Whether these agencies will receive word, we cannot say,” said Wayne commissioner chairman Brian Smith.

“It’s going to put a great deal of pressure on departments,” said Pike commissioner Harry Forbes. “We are committed to the core services that we offer to our citizens. We can save some money by penny-pinching, cutting travel and not filling positions as they are vacated by retirements or resignations. How much we can save will have to be seen.”

“These freezes are likely to become permanent cuts from amounts approved in the commonwealth budget last October, said Dichter.

Programs like the prisons, boards of elections, planning and other departments receive no funding from the state and are not affected.

“It’s a cruel irony that we got word about the freezes a week after we adopted our budget,” Hill said. “After a 101-day budget delay, and all the cash flow problems that it caused and the lower appropriations coming from the state, I don’t imagine many counties have the reserves to tap into. There will have to be service cuts to get through this.”