With Pennsylvania still without a budget, and now the federal government shutdown, counties are facing even tougher times. Money that normally comes from state and federal funds is being held up indefinitely.

Some counties, like Northampton, have announced that some of the county’s human services employees will be furloughed by the end of the month if the state doesn’t pass a budget before Oct. 20. The reason is because Pennsylvania covers approximately 80% of the county human services budgets, and right now that money is not coming in.

For other counties, like Carbon, while the bank accounts are running down, the commissioners say they are committed to continuing to fund much needed programs like meal deliveries to seniors through the end of the year, while making some other tough cuts regarding providers.

On Thursday, Susan Zeigler, director of the county Area Agency on Aging, announced that following a meeting with the commissioners, they have come up with a compromise to meet the needs of the seniors, but at a cost to the providers.

“We sat down with Sue and members of her staff to go over budgetary concerns and how we continue to move forward to operate that agency,” commissioners’ Chairman Mike Sofranko said before the announcement. “Obviously, we still don’t have a state budget so it is funded by the county to make up those differences and they do receive some federal funding, and as we know right now, we do not have a federal budget. The county has kind of gotten hit with a double whammy.

“The commissioners felt it was best to have the meeting because we are very much concerned about our seniors in this county, about their well-being, not only their physical well-being, but their mental well-being,” he added. “We came up with a plan that we feel will get us to the end of the year.”

Zeigler said that in August alone, the Area Agency on Aging delivered 5,548 meals to seniors between meals at the five senior centers and home delivery to those who can’t get out to get meals.

“When I talked to the commissioners, we were noticing that the funding we had in reserves was getting kind of low,” Zeigler said. “The board of commissioners felt, and also my aging management team, that the meals served, the daily attendance at our senior centers, our aging outreach programs, are very important to the seniors here in Carbon County.”

She noted that in some cases, the senior’s only contact with another human in a week is that volunteer who delivers their meals to them through the program.

“These meals are helping to fight social isolation,” Zeigler said. “They are also helping to fight the food insecurity that people are experiencing.”

Because of this, Zeigler said that the county has decided to keep all senior centers fully and in-home delivery operational through the end of 2025.

Zeigler said that the cost to the county will be approximately $75,000 to $80,000 a month for those two programs.

To offset that cost, effective Nov. 1, Zeigler said, all payments to the agency’s providers, as well as landlords, will be delayed until the state funds begin to flow again.

The best possible news would be if the state decides to pass the budget before then, but that’s where we are at at this point,” she said.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said the state’s inability to find middle ground and pass a budget is hurting every county and the taxpayers.

“This is devastating to the county,” he said.

Ahner pointed out that this delay in state funding will cost many of the providers their businesses, compounding the problems counties face with needing to provide these services.

“Everything through human services has providers. I think we have 1,100 providers (in the state),” Ahner said.

“Do they realize if we lose 300 of those providers, what’s going to happen? Are jails are going to be full. Our businesses are going to go out of business and we’re never going to recover. ... I think that’s terrible that we have to send something out to somebody saying that we can’t pay. ... They don’t know the devastation that can happen here. They’re in charge of a system that’s run by the state and I don’t know if they realize that this system could collapse. ...

“All these things that we did for drug court, all the things we did for children and youth, is going to be thrown out the window because now we’re going backwards.”

“Something is broken in Harrisburg,” Sofranko added. “It needs to be fixed.”

He again urged Gov. Josh Shapiro and members of Legislature to come together to meet the needs of the people they are supposed to be serving and not allow these problems to fall on the backs of the taxpayers again.

“We’ve only ever asked that you just release the money that’s there,” he said. “If you’re going to tell us that you’re going to give cuts or something is going to happen, at least we would have time to adjust.”

Regarding the county’s decision to hold payments to landlords and providers, Sofranko said that it is only compounds the problem in the long term.

He stressed that while these are very tough times for the county, with the anticipated date of running out of money by November still holding true, the board of commissioners plan to maintain operations and will not furlough employees through the end of the year.

“We’re doing our best to avoid that and get to the end of the year,” Sofranko said. “I can’t make any promises going forward with the new (county) budget, because we don’t know.

“The number one thing that we said from the beginning is we’ll worry about our senior citizens and our children, and that’s where we are right now and then we’ll move forward. ...

“To say the least, it’s a struggle.”

The Carbon County Area Agency on Aging and board of commissioners have agreed that serving meals to senior citizens is a top priority, even as the state budget impasse continues.

Here is a breakdown of what just one month of meals looks like in the county. The current cost per meal is $6.12. August figures, presented by Susan Zeigler, director of aging:

Weatherly Senior Center

• Meals served at the center: 294

• Meals delivered: 440

Panther Valley Senior Center

• Meals served at the center: 342

• Meals delivered: 1,436

Jim Thorpe/Penn Kidder Senior Center

• Meals served at the center: 247

• Meals delivered: 538

Lehighton Senior Center

• Meals served at the center: 332

• Meals delivered: 1,419

Palmerton Senior Center

• Meals served at the center: 155

• Meals delivered: 345