Chester County To Stop Fronting Funds For State To Pay Critical Human Services
CHESTER COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) -- Now in the sixth month of Pennsylvania's budget stalemate, another county has announced they will no longer be able to front the money for the state to pay human services providers.
Chester County has been paying for services the state should be reimbursing them for.
But now, they will cease paying for those services, all because of the state's budget stalemate.
Terence Farrell is Chairman of the county's Board of Commissioners and says no budget means critical human services like youth services, and drug and alcohol programs, are draining the county of money.
"Hopefully this will be a signal and pressure enough to for the state legislature and the governor to get together and resolve this issue," Farrell told KYW Newsradio.
The Commissioners decided that as of January 1, they will stop paying, leaving the programs to foot their own bill.
In the past 5 months, Chester County has been funding these human services, at a rate of about $6 million a month out of our own reserves.
That's a total of about $30-$32 million dollars.
He says the county is looking into legal action against the state.
