They feel like a broken record, repeating the same thing week after week, but the Pennsylvania budget impasse continues to hurt the people of the state, Carbon County officials say, so they will continue to show their frustrations until a state budget is finally passed.

“All that money is sitting in Harrisburg collecting interest for the state of Pennsylvania, while Carbon County and all 67 counties in this state go broke,” commissioners’ Chairman Mike Sofranko said Thursday. “If that’s not the governor’s fault and the state House and state Senate’s fault, then I don’t know who the hell’s fault it is; but it’s not the county commissioners or county government’s fault. It’s time to get back to Harrisburg and stop voting on bills and start voting on budgets.”

Sofranko’s frustrated words were echoed by his colleagues, and by commissioners around the state, where some counties are being forced to furlough people because money is running out.

“We’ve had it,” Commissioner Wayne Nothstein added. “We’re frustrated, as well as all of the county commissioners across the state. ... The taxpayers got to realize and they got to scream as well. It’s costing you, the taxpayer, money because of what we may have to borrow we have to pay back with interest.”

“And it’s money they’re making interest on,” Commissioner Rocky Ahner said. “Then they want to charge us interest on the money that you (the taxpayers) already paid for your taxes. You wouldn’t think that would even be possible to do something like that. Wouldn’t that be called double dipping?”

The commissioners said that while projections initially were showing November being when the county coffers officially run bare, they have been able to stretch the dollars to near December.

“You notice all three commissioners are sitting her today in black,” Sofranko said. “That’s because the county is still in the black, but I’m going to be honest with you, by December ... Carbon County will officially be out of money.”

He noted that the commissioners continue their efforts to get the county through to the end of the year without layoffs, but its getting tougher to see into 2026 as the county works on next year’s budget — a spending plan that must be approved by the end of the year or the county could face fines.

‘The reality’

Sofranko said that people have asked what the county does with the parking fees generated by the parking lot.

“Well, I guess you’re starting to see where that money is going,” he said, “because that’s propping up a lot of the departments in this county right now. ... Every day our county administrator speaks with our fiscal director, who hands us a list of where we can borrow from what account to pay the other account we’ve robbed. We’ve robbed Peter to rob Paul and hope that Mary’s talking to Joseph so that John can give a payroll.

“I’m not blowing smoke here. This is reality. ... We want you to know how bad it is. It will impact every single department across this county and our goal is to not make that happen.”

The board scoffed at the state treasury’s attempt to help with the stop gap loans because it is only putting a band-aid on the situation, while also penalizing everyone.

“When you talk about the loan, and we’ve begun looking into that as to where we can go there,” Sofranko said. “We can get 25% of the state allocated amount that comes to the county ... we’re roughly looking at about a little over $10 million give or take so that means we can apply for $2.5 million.”

At the beginning of this year, the county had to take out an $8 million tax anticipation loan to fill their budget gap until tax dollars started flowing in May.

The board was able to hold that loan down to $4 million instead of the full $8 million.

“We can only get $2.5 million of the $4 million we need, which means we’re a million and a half in the hole there,” Sofranko continued. “So now you want me to go borrow $2.5 million at 4 and a half percent interest and then we got to go borrow another we might as well say $2 million at a higher interest rate. And here’s the killer: All that money is sitting in Harrisburg collecting interest for the state of Pennsylvania.”

Nothstein said that the county may be forced to do just that because operations need to continue.

“How can we shut down any of our departments? We’re all public services,” he said. “Our court system can’t shut down. Our prison can’t. People have to scream. Voters have to scream and let them know they have to be heard. It’s costing us money big time and I don’t think people realize.”

100 days and counting

Pennsylvania has been without a state budget since the legislators blew through the June 30 deadline.

Since then, the two sides have not been able to come to an agreement, with the impasse now stretching over 100 days.

Last week, state Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill and Carbon, said on his Facebook page that he is “continuing to push for a balanced PA budget that will not lead to massive tax increases. Unfortunately, the Democrats in the House have again proposed an irresponsible plan that seeks to spend billions more than taxpayers can afford.”

He also urged the House “to immediately pass the budget approved by the Senate on Aug. 12 — that would get money flowing to counties, schools and social service agencies.”

Likewise, state Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, also pointed to Democrats as the holdup for the impasse.

He said on Oct. 10, “Before Wednesday, there was a clear path forward to immediately release the money. House Democrats could have advanced the budget bill approved by the Republican-controlled Senate — a plan that would have funded schools, senior centers, and other critical services without delay. Instead, they chose to pass their own $50.25 billion spending plan, negotiating only among themselves and preparing to raise taxes on Pennsylvania families. Their proposal spends at least $5 billion more than the state expects to collect in revenue.”