Child Welfare Agencies Call On Wolf To Expand Funding During Budget Impasse
By Jim Melwert
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- It's now seven weeks that Pennsylvania has been without a budget, and agencies that rely on state funding are starting to sweat. That prompted a gathering in Delaware County on Thursday, to push the governor to label child welfare programs as "essential" so they'll continue to receive state funding during the impasse.
Brenda Dawson is president and CEO of Pathways PA, an agency, she says, provides services to more than 4,000 homeless or teenage mothers and their children.
"We need to be considered as an essential service," Dawson says, "because, in fact, the services are crucial to the families and children that we serve."
One of a handful of agencies that Delaware County Councilman Mike Culp says Delaware County is still funding, to the tune of $2-million dollars.
"Out of our general fund until hopefully the state comes to their senses and starts funding these essential issues," he says. "We don't want to leave our children and our abused mothers and all that – we couldn't sleep at night."
Republicans at the event criticized the governor of vetoing the entire budget. A spokesman for Governor Tom Wolf says the GOP budget is detrimental to human services and "continues the damaging cuts the enacted over the past four years."
