August 7th, 2009

Reports the Times-Tribune:

Some local service providers are already feeling the effects of the state’s lingering budget impasse.

“We’re really being hit on a number of different levels at this stage,” said Michael Hanley, executive director of United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania. “It’s affecting child care, it’s affecting our senior centers and youth programs.”

The five-week budget stalemate forces some businesses to plan for alternatives if the deadlock persists.

“I’m concerned enough that I called my vendors and I called my bank,” said Michael Kelly, owner of Green Ridge Health Care Center and Scranton Manor Assisted Living Center.

Mr. Kelly’s facilities typically bill the state about $150,000 monthly for Medicaid patients, but he worries whether the payments will continue.

“We’re getting nervous,” he said.

A stopgap measure signed Wednesday by Gov. Ed Rendell provides payment to state employees, $5.7 billion for the Department of Public Welfare and $1.6 billion for prisons. But DPW will not pay its contractors and county child-care subsidies until the budget is finalized, spokeswoman Stacey Witalec said.

Read more at the Times-Tribune.