Jul 28, 2015 6 min read

The calendar might say July, but Washington School District business manager Rick Mancini is thinking of Christmas.

And it’s not because visions of sugarplums dance in his head.

They’re more like nightmarish flashbacks to Christmas 2003, when then-Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell’s two-pronged approach to the state budget, according to the Associated Press, “produced a protracted battle of political wills that ended” at about the time Santa was harnessing the reindeer.

Fast-forward a dozen years, and another Democratic governor in his first year in office is locked in a budget impasse with a Republican-controlled Legislature.

With the start of the 2015-16 school year just around the corner, public schools are receiving no money from the state until the Legislature either produces a funding bill the governor will sign or votes to override his veto.

Mancini perceives this stalemate to be “almost a mirror of what happened with Rendell … I’m looking at Christmas.”

So, what’s a school district to do when there are children to be educated but a large chunk of what’s known as the basic education subsidy from the state hasn’t materialized?

In the case of Washington School District, the board adopted a budget early on. The district’s bond payments are due the first of September, and its tax notices were mailed out during the first week of June. To take advantage of a discount, “a lot of our taxpayers pay their taxes early,” Mancini said, enabling his district to make its bond payment and meet October payrolls.

Last year, the state came through July 27 with a $40,000 Social Security payment, but in August, money from the state really added up: $560,000 in property tax money from the state, $1.2 million in basic education subsidy and $25,000 for transportation.

“August was the big month,” Mancini said. “You’re talking almost $1.8 million.”

In Canon-McMillan School District, Superintendent Michael Daniels reminded residents schools must be able to meet payroll during the summer months even if school is “out.”

“We are fortunate to have a contingency,” he said. “It’s not like a school district operates like a bank. Those monies go very quickly. But we are potentially in a better situation than other school districts might be.”

If the stalemate drags on, Canon-Mac would seek a loan on which its taxpayers would have to pay interest. Layoffs would be an act of last resort.

“From my perspective, I believe Gov. (Tom) Wolf is making an appropriate effort to fund education in Pennsylvania and it’s unfortunate it’s at an impasse at this point,” Daniels said.

Concerns over the budget situation vary widely among school districts in Greene County, and in keeping with the Christmas-in-July theme, they have a lot to do with lumps of coal: not in the stocking, but mined from the earth.

Central Greene Superintendent Brian Uplinger said he’s “getting nervous” about the delay, although school officials are prepared to temporarily pull money from the district’s capital reserve account if the budget battle persists. He expects his district will be able to operate normally unless the negotiations drag into December.

“That could cause a larger issue for us down the road,” Uplinger said. “We’re OK at this point. I think all five (school districts in Greene County) could weather the storm this year, but it’s getting more difficult.”

That is certainly the case in West Greene School District, which receives a large share of its tax base in the form of coal reserves. The state supplies only about 18 percent of the district’s revenue, which is less than other school districts.

“You’re a little more cautious, but it’s not show-stopping,” West Greene School District business manager Shannon Rutan said. “We’re not in panic mode at this point, but we’re not going to go overboard until (the budget) actually is passed.”

Counties are better situated

Pennsylvania has been without a 2014-15 spending plan for nearly a month, but cash continues to flow to more than a dozen Washington County programs designed to aid residents.

Programs continuing as usual are those administered by the county or related agencies include child care subsidies for the working poor, health care services paid through medical assistance and the Medical Assistance Transportation Program.

Washington County Director of Administration Scott Fergus said the county is not in crisis mode yet. “We haven’t had anybody come to us to ask us to make up funds,” he said.

If there were anyone coming to the commissioners hat in hand, it would likely be Tim Kimmel, Washington County director of human services who is also administrator of the Washington County Health Center.

“We are not in crisis mode by any stretch of the imagination,” Kimmel said. “We are fully confident we can weather the storm this time.”

He harked back to 2009 when Gov. Ed Rendell, at loggerheads with the state Legislature, did not sign a budget until October, 101 days into the fiscal year. Children enrolled in day care centers in Washington and their parents took to the sidewalks to protest the lack of a budget, and Greene County laid off several full-time and part-time workers. They were rehired once Rendell signed a budget appropriations bill.

Greene County Human Services Administrator Karen Bennett said Tuesday the county is closely monitoring the budget situation in Harrisburg, but officials won’t be overly concerned unless it stretches into late August. Specifially, Aug. 20 will be a key date for her department and counterparts in other counties because that’s when providers begin sending their July invoices.

She said, however, the commissioners assured her they could dip into Marcellus Shale impact fee money as a stopgap until state payments are made.

“In the big picture, we’ll continue to support the essential operations of human services,” Bennett said. “Fortunately, we have impact fee money that will help us to bridge the gap.”

She noted the state went through this situation before, including when the budget passage was delayed 101 days in 2009. Bennett hopes it’s resolved much sooner, but Greene County is insulated for now should it continue for another month.