Agencies and organizations that provide services that save lives are being forced into a position of needing to make possible life and death decisions if a state budget isn't passed soon, officials report.

On Thursday, the Carbon County Commissioners held a press conference outlining the effects the budget impasse is having on just four of its agencies and the thousands of people they serve. Today marks day 130 without a state budget.Representatives from Carbon-Monroe-Pike Mental Health/Developmental Services; Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission; Carbon County Area Agency on Aging and Carbon County Children and Youth spoke out about the current status of their programs and the importance of getting legislators united to pass a budget.CMP MH/DSSheila Theodorou, administrator for CMP MH/DS, said that her agency, which serves approximately 2,000 people ranging from infants to adults in Carbon County, is owed $6.4 million in state funding and has no idea when that will come."Since July 1, we have not received any state funds," she said. "We stopped providing funds to our providers so that we can keep our own internal organizations funded, but we're running out of resources."In fact, just this week, Theodorou said that the agency was forced to take out a line of credit just to make payroll."Programs are running on empty waiting for funds from Harrisburg," she said. "We're at risk of losing key staff, and we're placing children, adults and families at risk."CMP MH/DS provides programs for people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities."We are advocating for whatever it takes to get a budget passed in Harrisburg from both sides of the table," Theodorou said.Theodorou said that the agency has already been working on a $1.2 million cut from the state budget three years ago and at that time, absorbed the loss internally. If things don't change soon though or money is not restored, the agency will be forced to pass this loss along to the provider network for the same services."There is a lot at stake here," she said.CMP D & AJamie Drake, acting director for CMP D & A echoed much of Theodorou's concerns."When our people don't get the treatment they need, it doesn't just affect drug and alcohol, it affects every other human services, because they tap into every one of those services," she said. "It's a matter of life and death in many of our situations."Drake said that like CMP MH/DS, D & A has not paid providers for services since July and has been forced to tap into a line a credit, as well as seek out loans in order to keep the agency operational. On Wednesday, the commission received a $100,000 interest-free loan from Monroe County to help during the budget impasse."Without assistance from additional programs for funding, we would probably be out of funds by the end of November," she said, adding that the impasse has forced the agency to limit the funding for people who go into inpatient services to detox. "By the end of December, we will be out $819,000."Drake pointed out that in Carbon County, a growing opiate epidemic is causing an increase in the number of people requiring extensive services, causing wait lists because there aren't enough counselors to accommodate the growing clientele."We have seen an exorbitant growth in the amount of people coming into our provider office in Lehighton," she said, adding that the number of clients served in Carbon has now surpassed the number served in Monroe, which has a significantly larger population. "We cannot meet the demand because we don't have the resources because of a lack of a budget."Drake said that many of these individuals who are addicted to opiates are young adults. Many times, these people also have mental health issues, are involved with Children and Youth or the court system."Passing this budget is about people surviving," she said.Area Agency on AgingThe picture with the aging population isn't much brighter.Glenn Schoch, an accountant in the aging department, said that at this time last year, Carbon County had received $663,000 in block grant funds and $37,000 in MA assessment funds for services to the aging population.To date now, the agency has only received $44,000.Because of this, he said, trainings for staff were canceled and a $250,000 loan from Carbon County was taken at the end of August to help continue services for the approximately 1,000 people in the programs.A second $250,000 loan is expected to be made from the county general fund to the agency, officials said, in the next few weeks.These loans help continue operating the senior centers and meal programs, personal care services and more."The counties can only provide so much for agencies like aging," Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said. "Right now, we are doing all right, but we cannot continue to fund these programs. These programs will go away if something doesn't happen soon (with the budget). I think we'll be able to make it until the end of the year, but if something doesn't happen, we're all in deep trouble."Children and YouthChildren and Youth right now isn't feeling the effects of the budget impasse so much financially, Sallianne Schatz reported, noting that their budgeting system operates differently because the county puts out the money and then bills the state for reimbursements.But she noted that they are waiting on $700,000 in invoices from services with regards to Federal Title IV-E funds and the fourth quarter of 2014-2015 fiscal year, which is expected in December. Children and Youth costs approximately $300,000-$400,000 a month to operate."If it comes down to it though with not receiving funds, we would have to look at who not to pay," Schatz said, noting that the providers that would be looked at would be foster care and in-home services. "If we can't pay providers, I don't know how long we would be able to sustain our services."A cut in funding in Children and Youth means more children needing placements and less services to families to keep children in the home.With CMP D & A and CMP MH/DS not receiving money, Schatz said that Children and Youth will eventually be affected."We don't provide drug and alcohol and mental health services, we refer our clients to them," she said. "If I can't refer our clients to them, the parents aren't able to do what we are asking them to do to maintain a child safely in their home, which would result in more placements, and they won't be able to work to get children back so it would mean longer placements."Schatz said Children and Youth has enough money until December at this time."Come the end of December, if no budget is passed, we may have to ask the county for money just to stay afloat."Anger over inaction in HarrisburgThe commissioners voiced their frustrations over the budget impasse as they listened to the agencies."I hope the message gets out about how serious this problem is with the budget impasse and how many lives this is affecting," Nothstein said. "These are all programs none of us want to see go away. We're asking for immediate action in Harrisburg to get a budget passed."If not, this is only the tip of the iceberg."Commissioner William O'Gurek said that enough is enough, because counties cannot continue to fund programs at the risk of draining its own coffers just because the men and women in Harrisburg can't play nice together and reach an agreement."We need a budget and we need the money that comes with it," he said. "You are talking about lives, families. It's a shame."If I had my choice, I would lock all those senators and house representatives and the governor in that capitol until they come up with a budget," O'Gurek said."Without pay," Nothstein added."Hopefully other counties will do the same thing and get the message out to our legislators that this is having a huge impact on all of us, and it's about time that the guys get together and pass a budget and move on so we can provide the services we need to," Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said. "I think this budget comes down to life and death for some people."