Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Some groups have gone 3 months without state funds due to budget crisis.
Richard Kutz, director of the CEO Food Bank, helps a client and her son pack up a box of food at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Wilkes-Barre.
S. John Wilkin/The Times Leader
Social service agencies are struggling to keep providing services as the state has now gone three months without an approved budget.
Catholic Social Services and the Commission on Economic Opportunity, known as CEO, are just two of the many local agencies trying to find ways to continue helping people in need of their services.
Catholic Social Services Executive Director Ron Evans said the agency is cutting back on purchasing supplies, reducing travel for staff and putting off staff training to deal with its cash-flow issue.
“We are doing everything we can so we don’t scale back programs,” Evans said.
The agency has used $1 million of its $1.5 million line of credit because it hasn’t received funding since the end of June, he said.
Evans is not anticipating getting any funding until November, because even when the state budget is approved it will take an additional two to four weeks for the money to be received.
Catholic Social Services provides day care, before/after school programs and counseling, among other services.
David Ritter, director of housing and outreach at CEO, said he also worries about how long it will take the state to process contracts so CEO can continue providing its food pantry and funding for housing and utility assistance.
“They’ve had budget difficulties in the past, but never this long or this magnitude,” said Ritter, who has worked for the agency since 1978.
State funds account for about 25 percent of the agency’s budget, and CEO hasn’t received state funding since July 1, he said.
The agency’s housing assistance program has been put on hold because funding has not been received, and the need is growing because of the financial hardships on many families.
“The demand for our services is tremendous due to the economic climate,” Ritter said.
Shelves in the agency’s food bank are barer than agency officials would like. Ritter praised local religious organizations and the United Way for helping provide food, allowing CEO to provide for the community.
Vince Kabacinski, executive director for VISION, a homeless shelter, chastised elected officials for taking so long to pass a budget. The shelter is a roaming organization that moves from church to church on a weekly basis.
Kabacinski said he has no plans of closing and counts on the generosity of area churches and businesses to provide meals for the men. He did say the economic conditions are sending more men to his door seeking shelter because they are losing their homes.
“It seems the preservation of programs that deal with people doesn’t seem to be a priority at this point,” he said. “This is just another setback. Government continues to expect groups to do more with less.”
A couple of social service agencies are somewhat stable due to the use of federal funding and the diversification of their revenue sources.
Volunteers of America’s finances are steady because the large agency has a number of funding sources, including from the operation of three retail thrift stores, one of them in Wilkes-Barre, Chief Operating Officer Bill Jones said.
He said he doesn’t see any changes in the programs the group is offering because the agency has also done a good job controlling expenses.
Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Northeastern Pennsylvania actually added staff to handle the increase in people seeking services to save their homes from foreclosure, President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Elick said.
The service is still awaiting its state funding, but the federal grant money sent through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency will help the service continue to serve the public.
“They need to realize the longer this situation remains it is hurting the most vulnerable in our society,” Elick said.
Top legislative leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell reached a tentative budget agreement 12 days ago. Lawmakers believed it would be only a few days until Rendell could sign a budget.
State Rep. John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, agreed with Kabacinski, saying it is “unacceptable” that the budget is 90 days past due.
“Forty-nine other states have completed their budget process. We have not. We have to take full responsibility,” Yudichak said.
Lawmakers said they can’t just pass a budget and then go back with amendments later to fix any possible revenue shortfalls because, under state law, the governor is not permitted to sign a non-balanced budget.
Revenue sources still being debated include leasing public state land for gas drilling, taxes on cigars and smokeless tobacco and taxing the arts and small games of chance.
State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, is in favor of taxing big oil and big gas companies for the gas drilling throughout the state.