LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)— The Pennsylvania state budget is almost eighty days overdue, and school districts in our area are beginning to feel the impact.
28/22 News Reporter Connor Coar has more in Lackawanna County to discuss what it means to students and staff.
July 1 marked the start of the fiscal year for the commonwealth, and we are still without a budget. Schools have been back in session for about a month now, yet they have received nearly half of their state funding.
The Scranton School District is one of the largest districts in our viewing area, with an average budget exceeding $225 million over the last three years.
The Scranton superintendent tells 28/22 News that they operate on a calendar-year budget instead of a fiscal-year budget, but are still feeling the effects.
"Everything that you want to do is for kids and teachers to make education the best thing that it can be. You don't want to have to make these decisions to keep your doors open because you don't have your subsidy payments coming in on a regular basis," explained Dr. Erin Keating, Scranton School District superintendent.
In the last three months, the Scranton School District expected to have nineteen million dollars from the state, but has received no money.
According to Pat Laffey, the Scranton School District's assistant superintendent for finance and operations, they expect to miss out on another $10 to $11 million over the next two months if this trend continues.
"Obviously, as a father, my children and all children in the Scranton school district have the resources that they need. Fortunately, we were able to get our orders in the summer, open up school for September, but as this budgeting impasse continues, we are going to have to tighten the strings a little bit," stated Laffey.
Just down the road, the Old Forge School District is feeling the same financial concerns.
With a much smaller school population than Scranton, their budget is also much smaller. Averaging just over eighteen and a half million dollars over the last three years, according to the school's superintendent.
Old Forge is planning to pass a tax anticipation note at next Wednesday's school board meeting to continue paying for bills that the school district has. The loan is for $1.5 million, according to the superintendent. This was not an expected expense when the school was finalizing its budget earlier this year.
"We have to prioritize what we are going to spend with what little money we have right now. The money we have is coming from our taxpayers. Our tax bills went out at the beginning of August. So, what money we have is coming from our tax base," stated Dr. Chris Gatto, Old Forge School District superintendent.
Old Forge has been able to continue paying for salaries and benefits, but there are still bills that need to be paid.
A tax anticipation note puts a band-aid on those issues for the school district while the state continues to figure out the budget.
Dr. Gatto tells me he has called State Representative Haddock to ask when they can expect a budget from the state.
Haddock told Gatto sometime in October.
