Carbon County officials say state agencies that reimburse counties for certain services are continuing to fall behind in making those payments.

On Thursday, the county commissioners discussed the money still owed for Children and Youth Services in the county. As of the meeting, the state had yet to send payment for $6.2 million in services provided from earlier this year.

Commissioners’ Chairman Mike Sofranko said that this delay has put a crunch on the county with regards to next year’s budget because funds need to be in the county coffers to support these programs until the money comes in. That means that $500,000 will be used from the parking lot fund, while the county must also take out a tax and revenue anticipation note in the amount of $8 million.

“I think the biggest thing that everyone needs to understand is we have to have money on hand,” Sofranko said. “We have been working with the Children and Youth state agency to try and get our money.”

He said that the county is behind on three quarters with regards to reimbursements.

The board said that state Rep. Doyle Heffley has been helping the county sort things out, noting that he helped get $600,000 of the approximately $660,000 that Carbon was owed from the state Aging office.

Sofranko said that while Heffley has been able to help get the ball rolling in some areas and is working to get a meeting together with Children and Youth, he is only one legislator.

“He gets as frustrated as we do,” Sofranko said.

“We do have some serious concerns on the cash flow,” he added. “I’m not going to sit here and play any games, but some of that money that is used in the parking fund, at times, we do have to borrow from there so that we can meet payrolls and pay bills. ... There has got to be some money in savings to pay bills.

“I know people will tell you that I don’t have money in my savings account to pay bills and there has been times that we’ve held bills here at the county. But one difference between here and a house is there are people here that are entitled to a paycheck at the end of the week that they need to pay their bills. ... We’re waiting on $6.2 million. I’d love to have that in the bank right now, because then we wouldn’t be talking about a tax increase or any increase because we would have a balance.”

That’s why, he noted, that the county decided to use some of the parking fund for next year’s budget.

“We could very simply sit here and tell you like you heard a month ago, that we were looking at 7 mills and we got it down to 3. I feel l bad about 3 (mills) ... But by shifting this burden there (to the parking lot funds that are available), we’re not putting as much of a tax burden back on the taxpayer. We’re using a revenue source that we have that can help county taxpayers.”

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said that stopping services in Children and Youth and Area Agency on Aging until the state catches up on payments is not an option.

“You got to keep getting money to the elderly for different services and with Children and Youth, you have adoptions, you have all kind of things happening, you just can’t stop that,” he said, adding that some of the invoices were put in in July and have not been paid yet, while others weren’t paid until the county started complaining last month.

“We shouldn’t have to go and ask for the money,” Ahner said. “ ... It puts us in a predicament. You can’t shut off things for Children and Youth and aging.”

The board said that while they understand that it is the trickle down effect with the county waiting for the state to pay the funds earmarked, however the state also has to wait for the federal government funds as well; they just can’t stop providing for the residents.

“They need a better system,” Ahner added.

This is the second time in the last few years that Carbon County was owed millions in reimbursements from the state for Children and Youth services.

In 2023, the county was forced to loan itself $4 million from the capital projects budget to float the bills until the state reimbursed the county for these services.

At that time, the state had been behind in payments for over a year.